Optimized Preparation of Silver Nanoparticles from Polyethylene Glycol and Formaldehyde
Nichrous Mlalila *
School of Life Science and Bioengineering, Nelson Mandela African Institution of Science and Technology, P.O.Box 447, Arusha, Tanzania and ICAR-Central Institute of Post-Harvest Engineering and Technology (ICAR-CIPHET), P.O. PAU, Ludhiana 141 004, Punjab, India
Hulda Swai
School of Life Science and Bioengineering, Nelson Mandela African Institution of Science and Technology, P.O.Box 447, Arusha, Tanzania
Askwar Hilonga
Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Nelson Mandela African Institution of Science and Technology, P.O.Box 447, Arusha, Tanzania
Dattatreya M. Kadam
ICAR-Central Institute of Post-Harvest Engineering and Technology (ICAR-CIPHET), P.O. PAU, Ludhiana 141 004, Punjab, India
*Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Abstract
The purpose of this work was to study the effect of various process and formulation parameters on size and shapes of silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) based on surface plasmon resonance (SPR). AgNPs were prepared by chemical reduction using formaldehyde (HCHO) as reducing agent and capped by polyethylene glycol (PEG). Effect of several processing variables including the concentration and volume of capping agent and reaction time is reported. The size of monodispersed nanoparticles was between 30-100 nm and was stable for three months at both room temperature and 4°C.
Keywords: Capping agent, full width at half-maximum, particle size, surface plasmon resonance