Synthesis and characterization of Sn-3.5Ag-XZn alloy nanoparticles by the chemical reduction method

An attempt was made to synthesize Sn-3.5Ag-0.5Zn alloy nanoparticles by chemical reduction method. The chemical precipitation was carried out by using NaBH₄ as a reducing agent and poly-m-vinyl 2-pyrrolidone (PVP) as a stabilizer. The Zn content was varied from 0.5 to 3.5 wt%. The microstructure of the nanoparticles were determined by using techniques such as X-ray diffraction, transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM), etc. X-ray diffraction patterns revealed that Ag₃Sn was formed due to the successful alloying process. Other intermetallic compounds such as Ag₄Sn and Ag₅Zn₈ were also obtained in the XRD patterns. Results on TEM revealed that the isolated particles were spherical in shape and the particle size varied from 2 to 10 nm. The high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM) images for Sn-3.5Ag-0.5Zn alloys showed selected area diffraction patterns for Ag₃Sn nanoparticles. However, diffraction patterns for compounds like Ag₄Sn and Ag₅Zn₈ could not be obtained due to the strong aggregation of nanoparticles. The morphology of SnAgZn nanoparticles obtained by SEM revealed that the major particle size of SnAgZn nanoparticles were in the range of 60-80 nm.