  The effect of solar irradiation on plasmonic silver nanocrystals has been
investigated using Transmission Electron Microscopy and size distribution
analysis, in the context of solar cell applications for light harvesting.
Starting from an initial collection of spherical nanocrystals on a carbon film
whose sizes are log-normally distributed, solar irradiation causes the
nanocrystals to grow, with one particle reaching a diameter of 638 nm after
four hours of irradiation. In addition some of the larger particles lose their
spherical shape. The average nanocrystal diameter was found to grow as
predicted by the Ostwald ripening model, taking into account the range of area
fractions of the samples. The size distribution stays approximately log-normal
and does not reach one of the steady-state size distributions predicted by the
Ostwald ripening model. This might be explained by the system being in a
transient state.
