Facile route for preparation of silica–silver heterogeneous nanocomposite particles using alcohol reduction method

Silica–silver heterogeneous nanocomposite particles were successfully prepared by facile route including alcohol reduction method. Thiol groups were employed as a chemical protocol to make a binding between silver nanoparticle and silica surface. After the reaction for 10 min, a large number of quasi-spherical silver nanoparticles with an average size of 6.9 nm in diameter were homogeneously formed on the surface of silica particles. The immobilized silver nanoparticles grew to large ones with an average size of 10.6 nm in diameter after additional reaction for 2 h. The resulting nanocomposite particles were characterized by transmission electron microscopy (TEM), energy-dispersive X-ray (EDX), UV–vis spectrophotometer, and X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis.