Preparation and size control of silver nanoparticles by a thermal method

In this letter we report that stable silver nanoparticles can be facilely prepared directly from an amine-containing polyelectrolyte/AgNO3 aqueous solution without the additional step of introducing other reducing agents and protective agents through a thermal process. More importantly, the size of nanoparticles thus formed can be controlled by the initial molar ratio of polyelectrolyte to Ag.