Retrieval of Size Distribution and Concentration of Au-Ag Alloy Nanospheroids by Spectral Extinction Method

Abstract

In order to monitor the synthesis processes or characterize nanoparticles for application, a new method that allows in situ determination of the two-dimensional size distribution and concentration of Au-Ag alloy nanospheroids, based on their extinction spectrum, is developed. Non-negative Tikhonov regularization and T-matrix method were used to solve the inverse problem. The effects of the two-dimensional size steps, wavelength range, and measurement errors of extinction spectrum on the retrieval results were analyzed to verify the feasibility and accuracy of the retrieval algorithm. Through comparative analysis, the size steps and wavelength range that make the retrieval error smaller are found. After adding 0.1% random noise to the extinction spectrum, a small variation in the retrieval error of the mean size is observed. The results showed that the error of the mean size is smaller than 2% and the error of the concentration is smaller than 3%. This method is simple, fast, cheap, nondestructive, and can be done in situ during the growth process of nanoparticles.