Lead-germanate glasses: an easy growth process for silver nanoparticles and their promising applications in photonics and catalysisElectronic supplementary information (ESI) available. See DOI: 10.1039/c7ra07434d

In this study, we report non-conventional silver nanoparticle growth on the surface of lead-germanate oxide glasses. Thermal annealing at around the glass transition temperature ( T g ) under a nitrogen atmosphere enables the growth of silver thin films on the glass surface. The nanoparticle growth was monitored by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and UV-visible spectroscopy as a function of the annealing time. The characteristic temperatures were obtained by differential thermal analysis (DTA) and the influence of the Ag + ion content on the glass stability (GS) parameters was evaluated. Additionally, the apparent activation energy of crystallization ( E ) was calculated. The silver thin films obtained after different annealing times were applied as a substrate for luminescence enhancement of the Eu(btfa) 3 ·bipy rare earth europium complex. The catalytic activity of the Ag-doped glasses was tested for the reduction of p -nitrophenol in the presence of NaBH 4 . The catalytic performance of the unannealed glass demonstrated an unexpected good efficiency compared with the annealed glass samples. We report non-conventional silver nanoparticle growth on the surface of lead-germanate oxide glasses by thermal annealing under a N 2 atmosphere.