Preparation of size-controlled, highly populated, stable, and nearly monodispersed ag nanoparticles in an organic medium from a simple interfacial redox process using a conducting polymer

Abstract

The reducing property of an organically soluble conducting polymer (poly(o-methoxyaniline), POMA) is used to prepare monodisperse, size-controlled, highly populated, and highly stable silver nanoparticles in an organic medium through an interfacial redox process with an aqueous AgNO₃ solution. The transition of emeraldine base (EB) to the pernigraniline base (PB) form of POMA occurs during nanoparticle formation, and the nitrogen atoms of POMA(PB) stabilize Ag nanoparticles by coordination to the adsorbed Ag⁺ on the nanoparticle surface. The conductivity of the nanocomposite is on the order of 10^-11 S/cm, indicating that no doping of POMA occurs under the preparation conditions. The nanoparticles are free of excess oxidant and external stabilizer particles. The POMA (EB) concentration tailors the size of nanoparticles, and at its higher concentration (0.01% POMA with 0.01 N AgNO₃), very dense Ag nanoparticles (6 × 10¹⁵ particles/m²) of almost uniform size and shape are produced. The rate constant and Avrami exponent values of the nanoparticle formation are measured from the time-dependent UV-vis spectra using the Avrami equation. The Avrami exponent (n) values are close to 1, indicating 2D athermal nucleation with the circular shape of the nuclei having diffusion-controlled growth. The rate constant values are almost independent of AgNO₃ concentration but are strongly dependent on POMA concentration. The higher rate constant with increasing POMA(EB) concentration has been attributed for the lowering of nanoparticle size due to increased nucleation density.