X-ray photoelectron spectroscopic investigation of gold particles deposited on (formula) system

Abstract

Gold particles on SiO2/Si system were investigated by X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS) technique. A suitable reference point was first established in order to investigate the physical/chemical factors affecting chemical shift of gold particles. Gold particles were: i) deposited directly from aqueous solution, ii) capped with citrate agent and then deposited, iii) reduced chemically by NaBH4 and deposited on SiO2/Si system. In addition, gold particles were deposited onto different substrates (quartz, glass). Similar chemical shift of Si4+ 2p and Au 0 4f peak upon the application of external bias gave a strong evidence to the assumption that SiO2 could be chosen as reference. In addition, the derived Auger Parameters have shown that chemical shifts observed during the application of external bias are solely due to charging. It was shown that reduction and nucleation processes occur at the same time during X-ray exposure when gold particles are deposited from aqueous solution. Differential charging of gold particles was investigated by measuring the changes in: i) binding energy, ii) FWHM and iii) intensity values of Au 0 and Si4+ peaks. Our findings obtained from Angle Resolved XPS method supported the assumption that gold particles deposited from aqueous solution prefer to grow three-dimensionally. Assuming the Si 2p binding energy of Si4+ peak as a reference, the binding energy of gold particles is: i) 84.30 ± 0.05 eV when gold is deposited from aqueous solution, ii) pdfMachine trial version V 84.00 ± 0.05 when citrate capped gold particles are used, iii) 84.10 ± 0.05 when gold is chemically reduced by NaBH4. Vis-absorption and electrophoresis methods have shown that capped gold particles have negative charges and they aggregate reversibly (i.e. without coagulation) when they are deposited on SiO2/Si system from their aqueous solution (and transferred back).