SYNTHESIS OF SILVER NANOPARTICLES WITH DIFFERENT SHAPES AND STRUCTURES

Abstract

This paper presented the synthesis of silver nanoparticles with different shapes and structures by chemical reduction method. Silver nano spheres, silver nano rods and silver meso structures with different anisotropic shapes were synthesized according to a specific process. Morphology and structure of silver nano particles were studied by transmission electron microscopy TEM and scanning electron microscope SEM. The results showed that spherical silver nano particles, silver nano rods and anisotropic structure silver nano particles have good dispersion in the solution, the size and structure of them can be controlled by changing the amount of seed or amount of Ag ⁺ ions. Silver nano rods can be up to several hundred nanometers long and silver meso structures can also be formed with multiple hot - spots with a highly branched structure. The optical properties of the silver nano particles synthesized were investigated by UV-VIS absorption spectroscopy. The results showed that the optical properties of silver nano particles strongly depend on their shape, structure as well as size.