Single Pot Synthesis of Biocompatible Silver Nanocolloids

Abstract

Over the past few decades, inorganic nanoparticles, whose structures exhibit significantly novel and improved physical, chemical, and biological properties, phenomena, and functionality due to their nanoscale size, have elicited much interest. Nanophasic and nanostructured materials are attracting a great deal of attention because of their potential for achieving specific processes and selectivity, especially in biological and pharmaceutical applications. Silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) are already in use in numerous consumer products including textiles, personal care products, food storage containers, laundry additives, home appliances, paints, and even food supplements. AgNPs are added to all these products because of their bactericidal effects. On the basis of these uses, it is likely that AgNPs will be released to the aquatic environment, be a source of dissolved silver, and possibly exert toxic effects on aquatic organisms. In this article, I describe a simple onepot rapid synthesis route to produce uniform silver nanoparticles by thermal reduction of AgNO3 using oleylamine as reducing and capping agent. To enhance the dispersal ability of as-synthesized hydrophobic silver nanoparticles in water, while maintaining their unique properties, a facile phase transfer mechanism has been developed using biocompatible block copolymer pluronic F-127. Formation of silver nanoparticles is confirmed by X-ray diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and UV– vis spectroscopy.