Plasmonics of Supported Nanoparticles Reveals Adhesion at the Nanoscale: Implications for Metals on Dielectrics

The morphology and adhesion energy of nanosized metal particles supported on dielectrics are a puzzling issue since, due to the increasing contribution of surfaces and interfaces in their energetics, their equilibrium shape escapes the rules established for large objects. The evolution of wetting during Volmer–Weber growth of nanoparticles is herein studied by in situ ultraviolet/visible surface differential reflectivity spectroscopy (SDRS). The integrated s-polarized SDR signal is shown to be proportional to the oscillator strength of the optically excited plasmon resonances parallel to the surface. Dielectric modelings show that this quantity, which is marginally affected by the size and density of the objects, depends mainly on the aspect ratio of the particles from which adhesion energy can be derived. Applied to noble (Ag, Au) or transition metals (Cr, Ni) and Zn on weakly interacting dielectric (Al2O3, SiO2, KBr) and semiconducting (TiO2, ZnO) substrates, this plasmonic approach evidences a robust U-shaped variation of the aspect ratio with film thickness and therefore size. In line with the thorough study of the Ag/Al2O3(0001) growth and linear elasticity predictions of the equilibrium shape of strained epitaxial particles, the first branch of the “U” is assigned to a size-dependent equilibrium shape related to surface/interface stress effects. A significant decrease in adhesion energy parallels a rounding of the particles. The second branch partly stems from flattening due to incomplete coalescence. The common behavior of poorly wetting supported metal nanoparticles that is revealed herein, with strong changes in shape and adhesion as a function of particle size, had not been evidenced so far. Both the proposed optical methodology and the final findings about adhesion at the nanoscale are of interest in the wide field of application of supported metal nanoparticles that involves heterogeneous catalysis and thin film growth.