Highly dispersible polymer-coated silver Nanoparticles

Highly dispersible silver nano-material was obtained by surface functionalization of silver nanoparticles with polylactic acid. The thiolation method was used for attaching carboxyl groups to the silver surface by treatment with 3-mercaptopropionic acid. The carboxyl groups were further activated by diisopropylcarbodiimide and reacted with polylactic acid. The functionalized nanoparticles contained 1.88 wt.% organic phase. While the as-received silver nanopowder exhibited poor colloidal stability in tetrahydrofuran, particle size analysis revealed that the functionalized material displayed high dispersibility in this solvent.