Synthetic routes for the preparation of silver nanoparticles: a mechanistic perspective

NATALIA L. PACIONI; CLAUDIO D. BORSARELLI; VALENTINA REY; ALICIA V. VEGLIA

Silver Nanoparticle Applications, In the Fabrication and Design of Medical and Biosensing Devices

Springer

Año: 2015; p. 13 - 46

Silver nanoparticles (AgNP) are already part of our daily life, being present inclothes (e.g. in socks); household and personal care products, mainly due to theirantimicrobial properties [1], see Chapters 5 and 6. Furthermore, as discussed inthe previous chapter, their unique physical/electronic properties have convertedthem in excellent candidates for different applications e.g. Surface Enhanced RamanSpectroscopy (SERS)[2-4]. AgNPs optical properties depend on characteristicssuch as size, shape and capping-coating.Synthetic approaches for the preparation of AgNP continue to grow as evidencedfrom the quasi-exponential increment in the number of articles publishedin the last two decades (Figure 1).Generally, the methods used for the preparation of metal nanoparticles can begrouped into two different categories Top-down or Bottom-up. Breaking awall down up to get its minimum component ?the brick? represents the Top-downapproach, Figure 2. While building up the brick from clay-bearing soil, sand,lime and water would represent Bottom-up, Figure 2. Thus, in nanosciences Topdowninvolves the use of bulk materials and reduce them into nanoparticles byway of physical, chemical or mechanical processes whereas Bottom-up requires starting from molecules or atoms to obtain nanoparticles [5].