STRUCTURE OF INORGANIC NANOCLUSTERS EMBEDDED IN SOLID MATRICES - AN X-RAY-ABSORPTION STUDY

Results of X-ray absorption studies of copper nanoclusters embedded in SiO2 matrix and selenium chains confined in channels of cancrinite ar e reported. Initially randomly distributed copper atoms mainly surroun ded by silicon species in an as-made film upon annealing form copper n anoclusters with a characteristic size of 80 Angstrom and the structur e identical to that of bulk copper. The characteristic size of the clu sters does not increase with further annealing. Selenium in cancrinite is shown to form strongly oriented linear dimerised chains with a bon d length much larger than that in bulk forms of selenium.