Dispersibility of organically coated silver nanoparticles in organic media

Coating of organophobic silver nano-particles with thiols was applied to facilitate their dispersing in aprotic organic solvents and solutions of polyacrylic acid and polylactide. Impact of chemical nature of thiols and dipole moment of the solvents on dispersibility of the modified silver particles was studied by UV–Vis spectroscopy (surface plasmon resonance) and scanning electron microscopy. It was shown that thiols’ grafting to the surface of metal nanoparticles is an effective route to improve and stabilize dispersions in organic systems.

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► Silver nanoparticles were coated by thiols with various terminal functional groups.
► UV–Vis spectroscopy of surface plasmon resonance and SEM were used to study their dispersibility in organic media.
► Nature of functional groups in thiol molecule deposited on nanosilver surface strongly affects its tendency to agglomeration.
► Dispersibility of coated nanosilver in aprotic solvents depends on their dipole moments.
► Presence of polar groups in polymer increases dispersibility of coated nanosilver.