Observation od TiO2 Nano-particles by Scanning Probe Microscopy

[[abstract]]This experimental purpose is to utilize an atomic force microscopy（AFM）to survey the morphology of titanium dioxide (TiO2) nanoparticles. The TiO2 sample is manufactured by an arc-submerged nanoparticle synthesis system (ASNSS) which was researched and developed by Prof. Ho Chang’s group of National Taipei University of Technology. The TiO2 nanoparticles were collected in different dielectric liquids using the arc-submerged nanoparticle synthesis method. I adopt different ways in sampling and drying to observe TiO2 nanoparticles in silicon and copper / silicon substrates whether or not have different gathering or dispersing behaviors. Then AFM software was used to analyze the size of the TiO2 nanoparticles. The advantages of AFM in air system are to operate easier than in high vacuum system, observe the morphology and roughness of sample surface, use analytic software to measure size, grain analysis and statistic, 3-dimension display, etc… But the shortcoming lies in the atomic resolution is unachieved because of low vacuity, hardly to maintain the clean of surface. Besides, it is cost much time to get an image. The experimental results show that AFM images are helpful to distinguish the best ways of sampling and drying in that TiO2-distribution on Si and Cu/Si substrates. For example, in micrometer scale, one way that made the particles distributing uniformly on substrates even that formed clusters. The other way is to judge the size of the particles which are in nanometer, here defines the diameter of nanoparticles under 100nm, or the formed clusters under micrometer size that are uniform.