Eur. Phys. J. D 16, 293-296 (2001)
https://doi.org/10.1007/s100530170113

Phase behavior of organic-inorganic crystal

Temperature-dependent diffuse reflectance infrared spectroscopy of silver stearate

School of Chemistry and Molecular Engineering and Center for Molecular Catalysis, Seoul National University, Seoul 151-742, Korea

Corresponding author: ^a kwankim@plaza.snu.ac.kr

Received: 29 November 2000
Published online: 15 September 2001

Abstract

We have investigated the structure and phase behavior of nonmolecularly layered silver stearate by means of temperature-dependent diffuse reflectance infrared Fourier transform (DRIFT) spectroscopy. Upon heating the sample, remarkable spectral changes took place. The first phase transition took place that might be associated with a premelting event characterized by the formation of gauche conformers at 390-420 K. A second phase transition took place in which silver nanoparticles with a size of ~4 nm were formed by thermal decomposition of silver stearate at 520-550 K. These silver nanoparticles, derivatized by stearate, were readily spread as a monolayer at air/water interface, and could be packed in 3-D assemblies by the Langmuir-Blodgett method.