Chemical and electrochemical Synthesis of supported metal nanoparticles

In recent years considerable attention has been drawn to the possibility of deposition of metal nanoparticles onto substrates (conducting or not conducting) due to its great importance in the fabrication of practical devices such as heterogeneous catalytic systems, electronic sensors, biosensors or biomaterials [1-2]. Several methods have been reported to accomplish this purpose [3-4]. Among these chemical and electrochemical synthesis have been proved to be very striking because of the simple instrumentation needed and the capability to readily control the size and morphology of the as-deposited nanostructures through adjusting the experimental parameters [5-8]. In this report we present some studies for preparing non conductive (i.e. silica, hydroxyapatite, hydrotalcite) or conductive (i.e. Indium Tin Oxide (ITO), GC) surfaces modified with metal nanoparticles via polyelectrolyte mediated chemical synthesis or one step electrosynthesis, respectively. The effect of some variables as the choice of precursor used, the presence of additives, the kind of substrate, the electrolyte employed or the electrodeposition conditions on the nanoparticles size and distribution have been investigated. Morphological observations have been carried out using CVs, Scanning Electrode Microscopy, UV-Vis spectroscopy and X-RayDiffraction. These studies could offer a new approach to cost-effective way to prepare supported metal nanoparticles with excellent properties.