One-pot low temperature synthesis of monodisperse silver nanoparticles

A facile one-pot route for the synthesis of monodisperse Ag nanocrystals with a narrow size distribution is described. Uniform Ag nanoparticles with the size of around 12 nm were obtained by reduction of AgNO3 in the presence of oleylamine and polymer polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) at low temperature. It is found that temperature has a significant effect on the sizes and the size distributions of the nanoparticles. Because irregular Ag nanoparticles are produced easily due to Ostwald ripening or kinetic control at both high temperature and low temperature, respectively, uniform nanocrystals can be obtained at an appropriate temperature (70 degrees C).