Effect of molecular weight of PEG or PVA as reducing-stabilizing agent in the green synthesis of silver-nanoparticles

• We report a green chemistry method for silver nanoparticles (Ag-NPs) synthesis.
• We study the effect of the molecular weight of stabilizing agent at silver nanoparticles (Ag-NPs) synthesis.
• The silver nanoparticles (Ag-NPs) characterization were done by UV–vis, AFM, SEM-EDS, and TEM.
• The nanoparticles obtained are spherical in shape and between 2 to 30 nm (PEG) and 2.5–30 nm (PVA) in size.

Silver nanoparticles (Ag-NPs) have been prepared by a green chemistry method using PEG or PVA, as reducing-stabilizing agent, and characterized using UV–vis, SEM-EDS, AFM and TEM. A comparative study was done to determine the PEG or PVA molecular weight (Mw) effect, on shape, size and dispersity of Ag-NPs. Lower Mw of PEG or PVA results in small Ag-NPs. The synthesized Ag-NPs were spherical with an average size of 2–30 nm (PEG measured by TEM), and 2.5–45 nm (PVA measured by TEM). Furthermore, photocatalytic degradation of Putnam sky-blue 39 was measured spectrophotometrically using Ag-NPs under sun light illumination, with 97% efficiency.

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