Preparation of water-soluble palladium nanocrystals by reverse micelle method: Digestive ripening behavior of mercaptocarboxylic acids as stabilizing agent

Worm-like palladium nanoparticles are formed in the reverse micellar organic phase by means of chemical reduction in the water pools of reverse micelles. Water-soluble, spherical Pd nanocrystals are extracted from the worm-like Pd nanoparticles through the digestive ripening behavior of mercaptocarboxylic acids as stabilizing agents. It was found that during the reaction the production of spheres occurs in parallel with the formation of worm-like structure by association of the spheres on increasing the reaction time and the crystallization process occurs even during the extraction.