Influence of different types of stabilisers on the properties of silver nanoparticles suspension

In this Letter some effects of different type of stabilisers on physicochemical properties of silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) have been presented. The AgNPs were prepared by reduction method with some modifications. A sodium borohydride solution was added drop-wise (~1 drop/s) to a solution of silver nitrate. The reaction mixture was stirred vigorously on a magnetic stirrer plate at room temperature for 15~min. The synthesis method developed for this experiment and conducted in exactly controlled conditions produces monodispersed AgNPs. In this study the solutions of tri-sodium citrate dihydrate, C₆H₅Na₃O₇·2H₂O; polyvinyl alcohol (C₂H₄O)_n and poly(N-vinylpyrrolidone) (C₆H₉NO)_n with different concentrations were prepared by dissolving appropriate for the experiment amount of stabiliser in doubly distilled water. For nanostructure identification dynamic light-scattering measurements, UV-vis spectroscopy as well as scanning electron microscopy with ´back scattered electron´ detector and energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy has been applied. It was found that type of stabiliser was playing an important role in the formation of the silver nanostructures.