Deposition of gold nanoparticles on glass substrate by ultrasonic spray pyrolysis

Ultrasonic spray pyrolysis was used to deposit gold nanoparticles on a glass substrate using ZrO2 as a surrounding medium. The deposition was made using three flow rates of caring gas. The characterization was made by UV–Vis spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction, scanning electronic microscopy and atomic force microscopy. The UV–Vis spectra showed that the surface plasmon resonance peak, indicative of the presence of gold nanoparticles, was shown to shift towards the red spectrum as the flow rate increased; this shift can be associated to the change in size of the particles, which are assumed to grow on a {1 1 1} planes, as was detected by X-ray diffraction. Gold nanoparticles of spheroidal morphology with a relation of around 2:1 were detected by scanning electron microscopy, these observations were confirmed by atomic force microscopy.