Electron microscopic study of ultra-fine particles of silver resulting from the electron-beam-induced decomposition of silver azide

Abstract

Silver azide is known to decompose to metallic silver and nitrogen gas when irradiated by the beam of a transmission electron microscope. We report here that, under appropriate conditions, the resulting silver product consists of a wide range of particles sizes, varying from several hundreds down to tens of nanometres. The morphology of these particles is varied and includes well defined hexagonal or trigonal crystals as well as polygonized spheres. Some evidence is found for the formation of multiply twinned particles similar to those generated in silver-metal smokes. The electron-beam-induced route described here for producing silver microcrystals is straightforward and offers several advantages over conventional nanoparticle synthesis procedures.