Surfactant-assisted synthesis and characterization of stable silver bromide nanoparticles in aqueous media

Colloidal dispersions of silver bromide (AgBr) in aqueous surfactant medium have been prepared using a surfactant-assisted synthesis approach with hexadecyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB). The surfactant acts both as source of bromide ion as well as the stabilizing agent. Upon progressive addition of silver nitrate to aqueous CTAB solution, stable AgBr dispersions were obtained. Formation of surfactant cation (CTA(+)) stabilized AgBr was confirmed by way of XRD, FTIR and NMR studies. Thermal behavior of the isolated nanoparticles was investigated by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and thermal gravimetric analysis (TGA), where the occurrence of phase transition in the surfactant-stabilized nanoparticles was observed. Kinetics of the particle growth was investigated by dynamic light scattering measurements, which predicted the formation of surfactant bilayered structures associated with the nanoparticles of AgBr. Band gap of the nanoparticles was determined by suitably analyzing the UV-visible spectral data, which concluded that the particles behaved like insulators. Morphology of the particles, studied by TEM measurements, was found to be spherical. Finally, enthalpy of formation of surfactant-stabilized AgBr, determined calorimetrically, was found to be dependent on the concentration of the precursors.