Electrochemical Synthesis of Dispersed Metallic Nanoparticles

Micro- and nanosized particles of noble and precious metals, with size uniformity, morphological homogeneity, and high purity, are a class of material of great interest for many applications in the field of nanotechnology, due to their unusual catalytic and physical–chemical properties, and for their possible exploitation in catalysis and advanced technology applications. Several techniques have been employed aiming at the fabrication of nanoparticles of different metals, e.g. the chemical reduction of the chlorometallate anion, metal vapor synthesis, and electrochemical deposition [1–8]. Some other methods are being used for the preparation of gold nanoparticles like sol–gel, deposition–precipitation, and dipcoating techniques [9, 10]. Of these, recent studies have shown that electrodeposition is an easy and a fast procedure for the preparation of nanoparticles on a substrate [6, 11].