Nanosecond probing of the early nucleation steps of silver atoms in colloidal zeolite by pulse radiolysis and flash photolysis techniques Z. Tahri F. Luchez I. Yordanov O. Poizat A. Moissette V. Valtchev S. Mintova M. Mostafavi V. De Waele Received: 30 October 2008 / Accepted: 3 December 2008 / Published online: 9 June 2009 Ó Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2009 Abstract The process of formation and the subsequent aggregation of silver atoms (Ag 0 ) in nanosized zeolite beta (BEA) are studied by transient absorption spec- troscopy. The zeolite nanocrystals are stabilized in aqueous colloidal suspensions with a narrow particle size distribution in the range 30–60 nm. The reduction of silver cations is initiated either by pulse radiolysis of the aqueous suspension or by photoinduced electron transfer using an organic electron donor adsorbed in the zeolite framework. The silver atom in BEA nanosized crystals is found to be stable on the microsecond timescale. Keywords Silver aggregates  Nanosized zeolite beta  Transient absorption spectroscopy  Radiolysis  Photolysis Introduction For several decades, the metal and semi-conductor clusters and nanoparticles stabilized in micro- and mesoporous materials have been extensively investigated because of their catalytic applications and the possibility to develop new materials with remarkable optical or electronic properties. The combination of nanosized Z. Tahri  M. Mostafavi  V. De Waele (&) Laboratoire de Chimie Physique, UMR 8000 CNRS, Universite ´ Paris Sud, 91405 Orsay, France e-mail: vincent.dewaele@lcp.u-psud.fr F. Luchez  O. Poizat  A. Moissette Laboratoire de Spectrochimie Infrarouge et Raman (UMR 8516 de l’Universite ´ et du CNRS), Centre d’Etudes et de Recherches Lasers et Applications (FR 2416 du CNRS), Ba ˆt. C5, Universite ´ des Sciences et Technologies de Lille, 59655 Villeneuve d’Ascq, France I. Yordanov  V. Valtchev  S. Mintova Laboratoire des Mate ´riaux a ` Porosite ´ Contro ˆle ´e, UMR 7016 CNRS, Universite ´ Hautes Alsace, 68093 Mulhouse, France 123 Res Chem Intermed (2009) 35:379–388 DOI 10.1007/s11164-009-0049-1