THE EFFECT OF OPERATING CONDITIONS ON THE SPARK GENERATED AU-PD NANOPARTICLES

Abstract

Spark discharge is a technique for producing nanoparticles from conductive materials. We had previously used this method to produce Au - Pd bimetallic nanoparticles with a mean diameter of around 6 nm. In this study we changed the operating parameters (e.g. spark energy and frequency, carrier gas type and flow rate) and analyzed the generated particles for their structures and compositions. X ray diffraction (XRD) patterns showed evidence of the formation of alloy phase in all the samples. Compositional analysis by Inductively Coupled Plasma (ICP) revealed that the average mixing ratio was influenced by the polarity, the spark frequency and the gap distance between anode and cathode.