Size controllable synthesis of ultrafine silver particles through a one-step reaction

A simple one-step reduction method was explored to synthesize silver particles of different size. During synthesis, Polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) and CH2O were used as the protective agent and the reducing agent, respectively. It is found that the reaction parameters including the concentration of PVP and AgNO3, the amount of ammonia and the reaction temperature has great influence on the size and uniformity of silver particles. By careful tuning the reaction parameters, mono-disperse silver particles with the size of 40–2000 nm can be obtained controllably. It is considered that there were two growth modes: diffusional growth and aggregation.