We have synthesized Si nanoparticles using Si wafer by the electrochemical etching method. The method was originally developed by Prof Nayfeh group (APL 80, 841, 2002). They observed particle size as small as 1, 1.67, 2.15, and 2.9 nm with blue, green, yellow, and red emission respectively under UV irradiation (365 nm). We produced Si nanoparticles however with bigger size (> 13 nm) though we have green and red emission under UV irradiation; current density 20 -50 mA/cm2; HF/H2O2 = 2 in volume; HF 40% and H2O2 100%. Is there any possibility to reduce the particle size to nearly 2 nm?
Did you try to duplicate prof. Nayfeh's method exactly? If yes, which PSD did you get and how you did measure that?
Absolute peoxide is very unstable, I am not sure that you have some parasitic electrochemical surface reaction. Peroxide electrochemistry is very tricky...
Thanks a lot Prof. Gasik. Prof. Nayfeh group used HF 49% and H2O2 30% by volume, which are different from us: HF 40% and H2O2 100%. Do you think that it will largely change the particle size? We used TEM and ImageJ for particle size distribution.
I would recommend you first to replicate prof. Nayfeh experiments only. It is important you get their consistent results first, than you may start experiment with concentrations.
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