In situ synthesis of zero-valent silver nanoparticles in polymethylmethacrylate under high temperature

In this work, the silver nanoparticles were synthesized in polymethylmethacrylate (PMMA) matrix under high temperature with polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) as additional stabilizer and N,N-dimethylformamide (DMF) as reaction medium. The UV–vis spectroscopy and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) were adopted to investigate the growth and shape conversion of Ag nanoparticles with the lacking of additional Ag source. The results showed that the stable zero-valent Ag in PMMA was obtained successfully. Two types of Ag nanoparticles, single-crystal and twinned ones, could form in the initial period. While the twinned ones will gradually disappear along with the reaction processed, the single-crystal ones could survive and slowly grow by consuming the Ag atoms which were etched form twinned ones. The single-crystal ones will take shape conversion from sphere to nanocube with nearly the same particle size after the total disappearance of twinned ones. The size and shape of Ag nanoparticles can be well controlled by reaction time. The high viscosity PMMA matrix plays the important role of controlling the growth of the Ag nanoparticles, and the PVP takes the responsibility of the shape conversion.