Synthesis of spherical silver particles with micro/nanostructures at room temperature

•Spherical silver micro/nanoarchitectures were synthesized via a facile and environmentally benign route in the presence of poly(vinyl pyrrolidone) and ascorbic acid at room temperature.•With increase in the PVP content, there was a tendency for morphologies of particles changing from elongated nanorods to spherical nanocrystals.•Different mass contents of PVP resulted in different morphologies of the primary subunits.•The initial pH value affects the reactions through decreasing the reduction rate of silver atoms, decreasing the growth rate of seeds, and inducing non-specific adsorption for PVP.

Spherical silver micro/nanoarchitectures were synthesized via a facile and environmentally benign route in the presence of poly(vinyl pyrrolidone) and ascorbic acid at room temperature. The prepared spherical microstructures were composed of nanorods of 50 nm in diameter and 300 nm in length. The products were characterized with X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, and transmission electron microscopy techniques. The growth mechanism of spherical silver micro/nanoarchitectures involves the three stages of seeds formation, primary subunits formation, and aggregation of primary subunits. Some crucial factors affect the growth of micro/nanoarchitectures, such as initial pH value of solution and poly(vinyl pyrrolidone) content. In this article, the results of examinations of these factors are presented and discussed.