Shape control of silver selenide nanoparticles using green capping molecules

Abstract

Employing a capping agent during the synthesis of nanoparticles has been reported to play a role in controlling size and shape of the nanoparticles. Due to this reason, this study reports the synthesis of silver selenide nanoparticles using different environmentally friendly capping agents (green tea, glucose, ascorbic acid and chitosan) in order to investigate their effect on the size and shape of the nanoparticles. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) results showed that the nanoparticles have different shapes (rods, spheres and cubes) with an average size of 8–96 nm depending on the capping agent used. Fourier transformer infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy confirmed that the capping of nanoparticles was successful, while X-ray diffraction (XRD) showed that the nanoparticles have an orthorhombic phase.

Keywords

• capping agents
• nanoparticles
• orthorhombic phase
• silver selenide