Facile Synthesis of Ag Nanocubes of 30 to 70 nm in Edge Length with CF3COOAg as a Precursor

摘要

This paper describes a new protocol for producing Ag nanocubes of 30 to 70 nm in edge length with the use of CF3COOAg as a precursor to elemental silver. By adding a trace amount of sodium hydrosulfide (NaHS) and hydrochloric acid (HCl) into the polyol synthesis, Ag nanocubes were obtained with good quality, high reproducibility, and on a scale up to 0.19 g per batch for the 70-nm Ag nanocubes. The Ag nanocubes were found to grow in size at a controllable pace over the course of synthesis. The linear relationship between the edge length of the Ag nanocubes and the position of localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) peak provides a simple method for finely tuning and controlling the size of the Ag nanocubes by monitoring the UV-vis spectra of the reaction at different times.