Photochromic behavior of silver nanoparticle incorporated titanosilicate ETS-10 films

•Silver incorporated titanosilicate ETS-10 films were tested for photochromism.•The role of TiO32− quantum wires in the photochromic mechanism was investigated.•The partially reversible photochromic behavior of Ag0-ETS-10 films was achieved.

The partially reversible photochromic behavior of Ag0 nanoparticle incorporated titanosilicate ETS-10 films was achieved for the first time. Ag+ ions were incorporated into ETS-10 matrix by ion-exchange of extra framework cations (i.e., Na+ and K+) to form Ag+ ion-exchanged ETS-10. The colored (i.e., activated state) and colorless (i.e., bleached state) forms of the photochromic system of Ag0 nanoparticle incorporated ETS-10 films were achieved through thermal reduction and exposure to visible laser at 532 nm wavelength, respectively. The resulting Ag0-ETS-10 films and also Ag+-ETS-10 crystals have been characterized by ICP-OES, XRD, XPS, FE-SEM, HR-TEM, UV–vis spectroscopies. Partial restoration of color was achieved after second thermal treatment, which implies reversibility of the photochromic process. Furthermore, Density Functional Theory (DFT) results showed that ETS-10 had robust geometry and incorporation of the silver nanoparticles had minimal effect on the structure. The relationship of ETS-10’s unique structural formation along with the integration of Ag0 nanoparticles within its matrix and its subsequent photochromic property was shown for the first time.

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