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Importance of poly(ethylene glycol) conformation for the synthesis of silver nanoparticles in aqueous solution

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Abstract

Silver nanoparticles (NPs) were prepared using silver nitrate (AgNO3) as a precursor in an aqueous solution of poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG), which acted as both a reducing and stabilizing agent. The UV/Vis spectra showed that PEG 100 (100 kg/mol) has a remarkable capability to produce silver NPs at 80 °C, but the production of silver NPs by both PEG 2 (2 kg/mol) and PEG 35 (35 kg/mol) was negligible. This difference was explained by the conformation of PEG in the reaction solution: the entangled conformation for PEG 100 and the single-coiled conformation for PEG 2 and PEG 35, which were confirmed by pulse-field-gradient 1H NMR and viscosity measurements. In an aqueous solution, the entangled conformation of PEG 100 facilitated the reduction reaction by caging silver ions and effectively prevented the agglomeration of formed NPs. The reaction in an aqueous PEG 100 solution was observed to be stable under the conditions of a prolonged reaction time or an increased temperature, while no reduction reaction occurred in the PEG 2 solution. The synthesis of silver NPs by PEG 100 was well controlled to produce fine silver NPs with 3.68 ± 1.03 nm in diameter, the size of which remained relatively constant throughout the reaction.

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Acknowledgments

We are grateful to Dr. Matthew Tarr at the University of New Orleans for the access to the UV/Vis/NIR spectrometer and to Dr. Jibao He at Tulane University for his assistance with TEM. We also thank Dr. Ryan Slopek at the Southern Regional Research Center, Dr. Marcus Foston at Georgia Institute of Technology, and Cara Cotter at the University of New Orleans for their reviews.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. USDA ARS Southern Regional Research Center, 1100 Robert E. Lee Blvd, New Orleans, LA, 70124, USA

    Sunghyun Nam, Dharnidhar V. Parikh, Brian D. Condon & Megumi Yoshioka-Tarver

  2. Department of Chemistry, Tulane University, 6400 Freret Street, New Orleans, LA, 70118, USA

    Qi Zhao

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  1. Sunghyun Nam
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  2. Dharnidhar V. Parikh
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  3. Brian D. Condon
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  4. Qi Zhao
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  5. Megumi Yoshioka-Tarver
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Correspondence to Sunghyun Nam.

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Nam, S., Parikh, D.V., Condon, B.D. et al. Importance of poly(ethylene glycol) conformation for the synthesis of silver nanoparticles in aqueous solution. J Nanopart Res 13, 3755–3764 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11051-011-0297-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11051-011-0297-z

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