An effect of "scattering by absorption" observed in near-infrared properties of nanoporous silica

The obtained spectroscopic data for absorption and scattering characteristics of nanoporous silica in the wavelength range from 0.25 to 7 mu m are analyzed on the basis of the Mie theory. It is shown that aggregates of primary nanoparticles are responsible for relatively high scattering in the short-wave range from 0.25 to 1.4 mu m. But the presence of the aggregates and micron-size cracks in the samples cannot explain unusual behavior of scattering in the long-wave part of the spectral range. The attention of the authors is focused on understanding of strong scattering peaks observed at exactly the same wavelengths as the infrared absorption peaks of bulk silica: at lambda = 2.9, 5.3, and 6.1 mu m. The known physical effect of "scattering by absorption" is considered as a source of these scattering peaks. It means that absorption centers are assumed to be not uniformly distributed in the nanoporous matrix but collected in some micron-size regions. The estimates based on this hypothesis are supported by the fact that near-infrared absorption peaks are produced by silanol groups which may be nonuniformly distributed in the hydroxylated nanoporous silica. (C) 2010 American Institute of Physics. [doi: 10.1063/1.3374473]