Synthesis and study of nickel hexacyanoferrate nanocomposites with the noble metal silver

In this work, nanocomposites of nickel hexacyanoferrate with the noble metal silver were synthesized and studied. To begin with, nickel hexacyanoferrate nanoparticles were obtained by mixing solutions of potassium hexacyanoferrate and nickel chloride. After that, sodium borohydride and silver nitrate with different volumes were added to the resulting mixtures to obtain Ag nanoparticles with a mass fraction 0,1, 0,25, 0,5, 1, 2,5, 5%. At the next stage, the samples were measured by dynamic light scattering. As a result, the correlation of the hydrodynamic radius from the mass fraction of silver nanoparticles of 0.5% with a minimum of R=95±5 nm was established. Next, the samples were washed three times by centrifugation, dried and crushed. The samples were then examined by scanning electron microscopy. As a result, it was found that the particles are crystallites with a diameter of 20 to 200 nm. Energy dispersion spectroscopy of the samples revealed the presence of elements characteristic of the nickel-silver hexacyanoferrate nanocomposite, as well as a uniform distribution of Ni and Ag elements on the sample surface. At the final stage, an X-ray phase analysis of the sample was performed, as a result of which it was found that it contains nickel hexacyanoferrate crystallohydrate and a phase of nanoscale silver with a cubic face-centered lattice.