The development of silver nanoclusters in ion-exchanged soda-lime silicate glasses

Silver-containing soda-lime silicate glasses (chemical composition: 74.2 SiO2SiO2–14.3 Na2ONa2O–1.9 Al2O3Al2O3–8.1 CaO–1.5 MgO, in wt%), formed by ion-exchange process, were thermal annealed in air at temperatures in the range of 500–600∘C. After annealing at 600∘C for 45 h, the spherical nanoclusters were formed with ∼∼3–8 nm distribution in sizes. Increasing the ion-exchanged silver concentration decreased the annealing temperature to form nanoclusters.