Contribution to the development of functional nanostructured coatings based on silver nanoparticles

Abstract

This thesis is focused on the synthesis of silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) and their further incorporation into thin films using two alternative methods, the In Situ Synthesis (ISS) process and the Layer-by-Layer Embedding (LbL-E) deposition technique. A precise control of several parameters such as the shape, size, aggregation state or distribution of the AgNPs into the films has a great influence in the wavelength position of the Localized Surface Plasmon Resonance (LSPR) of the AgNPs. With this aim, two deposition methods such as sol-gel process and Layer-by-Layer (LbL) assembly have been studied and applied in order to deposit different nanocoatings based on AgNPs onto glass slides and optical fibers. In addition, these thin films that incorporate AgNPs
have been studied for two different applications. The first application is the fabrication of efficient antibacterial surfaces. The second application is the implementation of new optical fiber sensors based on the incorporation of these AgNPs in nanostructured films, making possible to obtain and display two optical resonances, (LSPR) and Lossy Mode Resonances (LMR), in the same device.