Synthesis and characterization of silver nanospheres in mixed surfactant solution

We report the synthesis of silver nanospheres in CTAB/NH3 mixed-surfactant solutions. By reducing silver nitrate with l-ascorbic acid in an aqueous solution in the presence of cetyl trimethyl ammonium bromide and ammonia, silver particles having a near uniform spherical morphology are formed in a few minutes. The XRD spectrum shows peaks pertinent to the silver cubic structure with nanoparticles oriented along their (111) planes. The UV-vis spectrum shows the characteristic plasmon absorption peak at 422 nm. The morphology is studied using High Resolution Scanning electron microscope. The energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy of the nanoparticles dispersion confirms the presence of silver and TEM analysis confirms the average size of nano spheres and the findings corroborated with XRD and HRSEM results.