Synthesis and characterization of monodispersed, oleic acid/oleylamine stabilized silver nanospheres in organic...

One-pot synthesis of spherical silver nanoparticles with excellent monodispersity in organic medium is presented in this account. Thermal decomposition of organometallic precursor, (hfac)Ag(PMe3) in the presence of oleic acid and oleylamine in o-xylene provides monodispersed silver nanospheres with the average diameters ranging from 15 to 18 nm and the deviations less than 7%. Characterization of the resulting silver nanoparticles by TEM analyses and UV-visible spectra demonstrated a narrow size distribution of the particles prepared in this study comparable to or better than those made by other synthesis methods.