Formation and Self-Arrangement of Nanocomposite Materials via Glass Anneal in Hydrogen

The process of metal nanoparticles formation in glass during its annealing in hydrogen is studied. On the basis of phase transition theory the strict system of equations describing this process is developed and simulated. The simulation shows that the system has two qualitatively different solutions: continuous distribution of nanoparticles in bulk glass and Liesegang-like layers. The results of the numerical modeling agree well with known experimental data: both types of the distributions have been registered in experiments. The dependence of final nanoparticles distribution on system parameters (initial concentrations, diffusion coefficients) has been analysed.