A facile aqueous-phase route for the synthesis of silver nanoplates

A new seed-mediated method for the synthesis of silver nanoplates is reported, in which tannin (C76H52O46) is used to reduce silver salt in aqueous solution. This synthesis is performed at room temperature, and doesn't need any surfactant or polymer to direct the anisotropic growth. The obtained nanoplates exhibit polygonal morphologies and their size can be tuned through adjusting the amounts of seeds. Due to the anisotropic shape feature, the absorption spectra of the nanoplates prove to be quite different from that of spherical nanoparticles.