Nanoparticle induced formation of self-assembled zwitterionic surfactant microdomains which mimic microemulsions for the in situ fabrication and dispersion of silver nanoparticles

• Published in: RSC advances Vol. 10; no. 56; pp. 34161 - 34166
• Main Authors: Nakagawa, Taichi, Hibara, Akihide, Hinze, Willie L, Takagai, Yoshitaka
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England Royal Society of Chemistry 10-09-2020; The Royal Society of Chemistry
• Subjects: Absorption spectra; Chemistry; Citric acid; Dispersion; Mapping; Microemulsions; Nanoparticles; Self-assembly; Silver; Surfactants; Zwitterions
• ISSN: 2046-2069; 2046-2069
• DOI: 10.1039/d0ra06824a

The effective synthesis of highly concentrated and stable spherical silver nanoparticles (Ag-NPs) enclosed within microdomains formed by the Ag-NP induced self-assembly of zwitterionic surfactants is described. In this paper, the rapid and efficient synthesis of dispersed and stable Ag-NPs in zwitterionic surfactants, such as 3-(nonyldimethylammonio)- or 3-(decyldimethyl-ammonio)-propyl sulfate (C
- or C
-APSO
) that self-assemble in the presence of the Ag-NPs to form microdomains akin to microemulsions (ME) without the need of any organic solvent, co-surfactant or polymer is presented. Essentially all (>99.9%) of the synthesized Ag-NPs (TEM diameter 16.8 ± 4.3 nm) were incorporated and dispersed within the ME microdomains (213.5 ± 48.0 nm). A mechanism for formation of ME and its enclosing of the Ag-NPs in the ME is proposed.