Deposition of palladium nanoparticles on the silicon surface via galvanic replacement in DMSO

The palladium deposition on the silicon surface has been investigated by the method of galvanic replacement in a solution of dimethyl sulfoxide. When activating by fluoride ions the spherical metal nanoparticles and their agglomerates with uniform distribution over the substrate surface are formed. The main factors influencing the geometry of nanoparticles are the palladium ions concentration, temperature and deposition time. It has been established that the concentration of reducible metal ions in the range of 1–2 mM l−1 provides the precipitation of palladium nanoparticles with the sizes up to 100 nm. The increase in temperature from 30 to 50 °C essentially increases the galvanic replacement rate, resulting in the increase of the nanoparticles size and the formation of agglomerates. The increase in replacement time leads to the enlargement of nanoparticles size without an increase in their number, indicating that the nucleation occurs predominantly in the initial period of this process.