Eur. Phys. J. B 24, 437-441 (2001)
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10051-001-8696-z

A qualitative model for the growth mechanism of silver clusters in polymer solution

¹ Istituto per la Tecnologia dei Materiali Compositi, CNR, Piazzale Tecchio, 80 - 80125 Napoli, Italy
² Istituto di Cibernetica "E. Caianiello" del CNR, via Campi Flegrei, 34, Comprensorio "Olivetti" , Building 70, 80078, Pozzuoli, Italy
³ Dipartimento di Scienze Fisiche, Università `Federico II' di Napoli, Piazzale Tecchio, 80-80125, Napoli, Italy

Corresponding author: ^a gpepe@na.infn.it

Received: 18 July 2001
Revised: 3 October 2001
Published online: 15 December 2001

Abstract

A simple and high-reproducible method for the synthesis of polymer-protected silver cluster of controlled size is described. UV-visible spectroscopy has been used for investigating the influence of the aging of the protective poly(vinylpyrrolidone) layer on the cluster growth rate at different reaction temperatures and poly(vinylpyrrolidone)/ethylene glycol weight ratios. The obtained results show that the aging time of the polymeric stabilizer solution plays a fundamental role in the reproducibility of the cluster growth process. A model for the metal cluster formation-grow process is also proposed.