One pot synthesis of multi-plasmonic shapes of silver nanoparticles

Abstract

Noble metal nanostructures as novel class materials have shown unique electronic and photo-thermal properties depending on their shape and size. They have been recently investigated owing to their technological and fundamental scientific importance. The development of a synthetic route for desired noble metal nano-architectures become an essential task owing to their fascinating optoelectronic and biomedical applications. Herein, we report a novel recipe for the synthesis of silver nanoparticles with different shapes by using poly (vinyl alcohol) for the first time via one pot synthesis by controlling the amount of sodium borohydride during the reaction process. Silver nano-spheres, nanorods, nanotriangles and nanocubes were obtained. These nanoparticles showed a single crystalline faced centered cubic structure with lattice constant 0.42 nm. The localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) was strongly affected due to the shape variation. The spectrum of the associated LSPR response was change from blue, green, yellow to red when the silver shapes changed from rod, sphere, triangle to cube, respectively. This novel method will open a new avenue for improving the physical and chemical properties of noble metals for promising technological and medical applications. © 2013 Elsevier B.V.