Generation and Self-Organization of Bimetallic Pd/Au Nanoparticles on SiO2 by Sequential Sputtering Depositions and Annealing Processes

PdAu nanoparticles have been grown on SiO2 by room-temperature sequential sputtering depositions. The nucleation and growth kinetics have been determined crossing atomic force and scanning electron microscopy measurements. From these measurements the mechanisms of the nucleation and growth have been determined. In particular: 1) during the deposition of the first metal (Pd), atoms adsorbed on the substrate are readily trapped on the substrate defects, forming stable nuclei which grow further. During the deposition of the second metal (Au), adsorbed atoms are captured by the clusters formed during the first deposition, before they have time to form a stable nucleus of pure second metal on the surface sites. So, the nucleation is mainly controlled by the Pd and the Au atoms are incorporated essentially by direct impingement of the vapour atoms on the already formed particles. 2) fixing the amount of Pd and Au, during post-deposition thermal treatments, a surface diffusion limited ripening of the NPs occurs. Applying the standard ripening growth theory several parameters characterizing the process were determined, in particular, the growth exponent n and the activation energy Ea. n was found to be dependent on temperature and amount of Au deposited. Ea was found to linearly increase with the amount of Au deposited. Such a dependence is discussed separating Ea in two terms: one describing the activation energy for atomic surface diffusion (independent on the amount of Au deposited), the other one describing the activation energy for the film clustering process (dependent on the amount of Au deposited).