Effect of molecular weight of PEG or PVA as reducing-stabilizing agent in the green synthesis of silver-nanoparticles

• Published in: European polymer journal Vol. 83; pp. 265 - 277
• Main Authors: Díaz-Cruz, César, Alonso Nuñez, Gabriel, Espinoza-Gómez, Heriberto, Flores-López, Lucía Z.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier Ltd 01-10-2016
• Subjects: Ag-NPs-PEG; Ag-NPs-PVA; Efficiency; Green chemistry; Illumination; Light (illumination); Molecular weight; Nanoparticles; Silver; Silver nanoparticles; Sun; Synthesis (chemistry); Ag-NPs-PEG; Green chemistry; Silver nanoparticles; Ag-NPs-PVA
• ISSN: 0014-3057; 1873-1945
• DOI: 10.1016/j.eurpolymj.2016.08.025

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•We report a green chemistry method for silver nanoparticles (Ag-NPs) synthesis.•We study the effect of the molecular weight of stabilizing agent at silver nanoparticles (Ag-NPs) synthesis.•The silver nanoparticles (Ag-NPs) characterization were done by UV–vis, AFM, SEM-EDS, and TEM.•The nanoparticles obtained are spherical in shape and between 2 to 30nm (PEG) and 2.5–30nm (PVA) in size.
Silver nanoparticles (Ag-NPs) have been prepared by a green chemistry method using PEG or PVA, as reducing-stabilizing agent, and characterized using UV–vis, SEM-EDS, AFM and TEM. A comparative study was done to determine the PEG or PVA molecular weight (Mw) effect, on shape, size and dispersity of Ag-NPs. Lower Mw of PEG or PVA results in small Ag-NPs. The synthesized Ag-NPs were spherical with an average size of 2–30nm (PEG measured by TEM), and 2.5–45nm (PVA measured by TEM). Furthermore, photocatalytic degradation of Putnam sky-blue 39 was measured spectrophotometrically using Ag-NPs under sun light illumination, with 97% efficiency.