Optical Response of Ag-Au Bimetallic Nanoparticles to Electron Storage in Aqueous Medium

Composition and structure dependence of the shift in the position of the surface plasmon resonance band upon introduction of NaBH₄ to aqueous solutions of gold and silver nanoparticles are presented. Silver and gold nanoalloys in different compositions were prepared by co-reduction of the corresponding salt mixtures using sodium citrate as the reducing agent. After addition of NaBH₄ to the resultant nanoalloys, the maximum of their surface plasmon resonance band, ranging between that of pure silver (ca. 400 nm) and of pure gold (ca. 530 nm), is blue-shifted as a result of electron storage on the particles. The extent of this blue shift increases non-linearly with the mole fraction of silver in the nanoparticle, parallel to the trends reported previously for both the frequency and the extinction coefficient of the plasmon band shifts. Gold(core)@silver(shell) nanoparticles were prepared by sequential reduction of gold and silver, where addition of NaBH₄ results in relatively large spectral shift in the plasmon resonance band when compared with the nanoalloys having a similar overall composition. The origin of the large plasmon band shift in the core–shell is related with a higher silver surface concentration on these particles. Hence, the chemical nature of the nanoparticle emerges as the dominating factor contributing to the extent of the spectral shift as a result of electron storage in bimetallic systems.