Growth of sputtered silver nanoparticles on a liquid mercaptan matrix with controlled viscosity and sputter rate

•Silver nanoparticles were successfully prepared by matrix sputtering on a liquid matrix with four mercapto groups, PEMP.•Growth mechanism of silver nanoparticles by sputtering on thiol organic matrix under the varied viscosities was investigated.•Diameter of obtained Ag nanoparticles increased from 1.8 to 2.3 nm as the viscosity of the liquid matrix increased.•Sputtering over mercaptan liquid matrix is a favorable method for the stable preparation of uniform very small nanoparticle of single nm order.

A sputtering deposition of metals over liquid matrixes has been investigated as a novel and environmentally friendly method to generate stable colloidal metal nanoparticles. We have expanded this method by using the liquid monomers with mercapto groups in order to prepare more stable, uniform and size-controllable nanoparticles. Here we report the systematic investigation on the growth mechanism of silver nanoparticles on pentaerythritol tetrakis(3-mercaptopropionate) (PEMP) matrix under the varied viscosities controlled by temperature. The diameter of obtained nanoparticles increased from 1.8 to 2.3 nm as the viscosity of the liquid matrix increased, and at higher viscosity region we obtained a thin deposited film on the liquid surface but no nanoparticles formed. The effect of viscosity on the particle diameter was much smaller than previous works using ionic liquids or polyethylene glycol, and then the phenomenon was understood by the structure of these matrixes where PEMP has four mercapto groups however ionic liquids or polyethylene glycol does not have any functional groups that introduce strong interaction with metals. These demonstrations suggest that the sputtering over mercaptan liquid matrix is a more favorable method for the stable preparation of uniform very small nanoparticles.

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