822 Langmuir 2005, 21, 822-826

Solvent-Adaptable Silver Nanoparticles

B. L. V. Prasad,* Sujatha K. Arumugam, Tanushree Bala, and Murali Sastry*

Nanoscience Group, Materials Chemistry Division, National Chemical Laboratory,

Pune 411 008, India

Received September 14, 2004. In Final Form: December 16, 2004

A simple and efficient way of obtaining silver nanoparticles that are dispersible both in organic and in
aqueous solvents using a single capping agent is described. The silver nanoparticles are initially prepared
in water in the presence of aerosol OT [sodium bis(2-ethylhexyl)-sulfosuccinate, AOT]. Thereafter, transfer
of the AOT-capped silver nanoparticles to an organic phase is induced by the addition of a small amount
of orthophosphoric acid during shaking of the biphasic mixture. The AOT-stabilized silver nanoparticles
could be separated out from the organic phase in the form of a powder. The hydrophobic nanoparticles thus
prepared are stable and are readily resuspended in a variety of other polar (including water) and nonpolar
solvents without further surface treatment. The amphiphatic nature of the silver surface is brought about
by a small orientational change in the AOT monolayer on the silver surface in response to the polarity
of the solvent.

Introduction to affect the phase transfer from aqueous to organic12-18

The exciting application potential of nanomaterials,1-5
especially metal nanoparticles, has resulted in a plethora
of experimental recipes for their synthesis either in water6
or in nonpolar organic solvents.7 Often the stabilization
of nanoparticles in different physicochemical environ-
ments (in different solvents) is of paramount importance
for their utilization as building blocks from both funda-
mental and applied considerations.8 Because the as-
produced nanoparticles are often soluble in either the
aqueous phase or the organic phase but not in both, a
great amount of work is also being done toward the phase
transfer of nanoparticles from an aqueous phase into an
organic phase9 and vice versa.10 (A summary of the efforts
currently in vogue can be found in the reviews written by
Sastry.)11 While many ingenious ways have been developed
* To whom correspondence should be addressed. Phone: 91-
20-25893400, ext. 2260 (B.L.V.P.); 2013 (M.S.). Fax: 91-20-
25893044 (B.L.V.P.); -25893952 (M.S.). E-mail: blvprasad@
dalton.ncl.res.in (B.L.V.P.); sastry@ems.ncl.res.in (M.S.).
(1) Alivisatos, A. P. Science 1996, 271, 933.
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(3) Teranishi, T.; Hosoe, M.; Tanaka, T.; Miyake, M. J. Phys. Chem.
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B 1999, 103, 5488. (e) Prasad, B. L. V.; Stoeva, S. I.; Sorensen, C. M.;
Klabunde, K. J. Langmuir 2002, 18, 7515. (f) Stoeva, S. I.; Klabunde,
K. J.; Sorensen, C. M.; Dragieva, I. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2002, 124, 2305.
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C.; Lixon, P.; Pileni, M. P. J. Phys. Chem. 1993, 97, 12974.
(8) Science 2000, 290, 1523-1558 (Special Issue on Nanotechnology).
or the more difficult organic to aqueous10,19-21 phases, most
of the methods are laden with their own disadvantages
and often require elaborate procedures to achieve the
same.11 In this regard a glaring lacuna has been the
development of one simple nanoparticle surface capping
procedure that leads to the stabilization of nanoparticles
in both polar and nonpolar environments, and in this paper
we address this issue.
Our strategy involves the usage of a water-soluble
bifunctional surfactant, aerosol OT [sodium bis(2-ethyl-
hexyl)-sulfosuccinate, AOT] during the preparation of
(9) (a) Underwood, S.; Mulvaney, P. Langmuir 1994, 10, 3427. (b)
Copanik, N.; Talapin, D. V.; Rogach, A. L.; Eychmuller, A.; Weller, H.
Nano Lett. 2002, 2, 803. (c) Lala, N.; Lalbegi, S. P.; Adyanthaya, S. D.;
Sastry, M. Langmuir 2001, 17, 3766. (d) Mayya, K. S.; Caruso, F.
Langmuir 2003, 19, 6987. (e) Yao, H.; Momozawa, O.; Hamatani, T.;
Kimura, K. Chem. Mater. 2001, 13, 4692. (f) Negishi, Y.; Tsukuda, T.
J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2003, 125, 4046. (g) Fendler, J. H.; Meldrum, F. C.
Adv. Mater. 1995, 7, 607.
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Hartshorn, C. M.; Krishnamurthy, V. M.; Forbes, M. D. E.; Murray, R.
W. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 1998, 120, 4845. (b) Simard, J.; Briggs, C.; Boal,
A. K.; Rotello, V. M. Chem. Commun. 2000, 1943. (c) Gittins, D. I.;
Caruso, F. Angew. Chem., Int. Ed. 2001, 40, 3001.
(11) (a) Sastry, M. Curr. Sci. 2003, 85, 1735. (b) Sastry, M. In The
Chemistry of Nanomaterials; Rao, C. N. R., Muller, A., Cheetham, A.
K., Eds.; Wiley-VCH: Weinheim, 2004; p 31.
(12) Sarathy K. V.; Kulkarni, G. U.; Rao, C. N. R. Chem. Commun.
1997, 537.
(13) Sarathy, K. V.; Raina, G.; Yadav, R. T.; Kulkarni, G. U.; Rao,
C. N. R. J. Phys. Chem. B 1997, 101, 9876.
(14) Fu, X.; Wang, Y.; Wu, N.; Gui, L.; Tang, Y. J. Colloid Interface
Sci. 2001, 243, 326.
(15) Zhao, S.-Y.; Chen, S.-H.; Wang, S.-Y.; Li, D.-G.; Ma, H.-Y.
Langmuir 2002, 18, 3315.
(16) (a) Kumar, A.; Mandal, S.; Selvakannan, P. R.; Pasricha, R.;
Mandale, A. B.; Sastry, M. Langmuir 2003, 19, 6277. (b) Kumar, A.;
Mukherjee, P.; Guha, A.; Adyantaya, S. D.; Mandale, A. B.; Kumar, R.;
Sastry, M. Langmuir 2000, 16, 9775.
(17) Kumar, A.; Joshi, H.; Pasricha, R.; Mandale, A. B.; Sastry, M.
J. Colloid Interface Sci. 2003, 396.
(18) (a) Wang, W.; Efrima, S.; Regev, O. Langmuir 1998, 14, 602. (b)
Wang, W.; Chen, X.; Efrima, S. J. Phys. Chem. B 1999, 103, 7238.
(19) (a) Swami, A.; Kumar, A.; Sastry, M. Langmuir 2003, 19, 1168.
(b) Swami, A.; Jadhav, A.; Kumar, A.; Adyanthaya, S. D.; Sastry, M.
Proc. Indian Acad. Sci., Chem. Sci. 2003, 115, 679.
(20) Wang, Y.; Wong, J. F.; Teng, X.; Lin, X. Z.; Yang, H. Nano Lett.
2003, 3, 1555.
(21) Pellegrino, T.; Manna, L.; Kudera, S.; Liedl, T.; Koktysh, D.;
Rogach, A. L.; Keller, S.; Radler, J.; Natile, G.; Parak, W. J. Nano Lett.
2004, 4, 703.

10.1021/la047707+ CCC: $30.25 2005 American Chemical Society

Published on Web 01/06/2005
Letters
nanoparticles, and AOT is one of the most widely used
and inexpensive surfactants. It has two ester functional
groups and a sulfonate group, which renders it highly
water-soluble, and has been widely used as a surfactant
in the synthesis of nanoparticles especially by the reverse
micelle methods discussed by Pileni and co-workers.7g,h,22
Here, we found that silver nanoparticles prepared in an
aqueous medium and capped with AOT may be rendered
hydrophobic by the addition of phosphoric acid. This
hydrophobic silver colloid, where the sulfonate and ester
groups cap the nanoparticles, is very stable, and the
particles retain their integrity even after the solvent is
evaporated. We also found that the dried deposit may be
readily resuspended in a variety of other nonpolar solvents
as well as water. Presented below are the details of the
investigation.
Experimental Section
Silver sulfate (Ag2SO4), sodium borohydride (NaBH4), AOT,
phosphoric acid (H3PO4), and other solvents were purchased from
Sigma Aldrich and used as received.
Silver Hydrosol Preparation. In a typical experiment, 1
10-4 M of Ag2SO4 in water was reduced with 0.1% NaBH4 in the
presence of AOT at different concentrations (1 10-4, 5 10-3,
and 1 10-2 M). A yellowish-brown colloidal solution of silver
was obtained almost immediately. However, the reaction was
continued for 2 h to ensure completion. To remove excess AOT
used during the preparation, the samples were subjected to
dialysis in a dialysis bag (12 kDa) for 24 h with regular change
of water every 6 h.
Silver Organosol. To a biphasic mixture of 25 mL each of the
silver hydrosol and cyclohexane was added 0.2 mL of 0.1 M H3PO4
under vigorous stirring. The color of the organic phase changes
to bright yellow immediately when H3PO4 is added to the silver
nanoparticle solution.
Redispersion of Silver Nanoparticles. The silver organosol
thus prepared was extremely stable. The silver solution was
evaporated in a vacuum, and the silver nanoparticle powder
remaining could be readily redispersed in both water and in
different nonpolar organic solvents.
The different samples prepared by the above procedures were
probed by UV-vis spectroscopic studies, powder X-ray diffraction
(XRD), Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, and
transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and the details are given
below.
The optical properties of the Ag hydrosol, Ag organosol in
cyclohexane, and Ag nanoparticles dispersed in various nonpolar
solvents were monitored on a Jasco UV-vis spectrophotometer
(V570 UV-vis-NIR) operated at a resolution of 2 nm. FTIR
spectra were recorded from drop-coated films of the different
nanoparticle samples deposited on a Si(111) substrate on a
Perkin-Elmer Spectrum-One spectrometer operated in the diffuse
reflectance mode at a resolution of 4 cm-1. The spectrum of pure
AOT was also recorded for comparison. TEM measurements were
performed on a JEOL model 1200EX instrument operated at an
accelerating voltage at 120 kV. Samples of Ag nanoparticles from
aqueous and chloroform solutions for TEM studies were prepared
by placing a drop of the solutions on carbon-coated copper grids.
The films on the TEM grids were allowed to dry for 2 min,
following which the extra solution was removed using a blotting
paper. XRD measurements of the Ag nanoparticles were per-
formed by casting the respective nanoparticle solutions in the
form of films on glass substrates by simple solvent evaporation.
The XRD measurements were carried out on a Philips PW 1830
instrument operating at 40 kV and a current of 30 mA with Cu
KR radiation.
Results and Discussion
The phase transfer of the aqueous silver nanoparticles
prepared with various concentrations of AOT into the
organic phase is illustrated in Figure 1A, which shows
(22) (a) Bagwe, R. P.; Khilar, K. C. Langmuir 2000, 16, 905. (b)
Kitchens, C. L.; McLeod, M. C.; Roberts, C. B. J. Phys. Chem. B. 2003,
107, 11331.
Langmuir, Vol. 21, No. 3, 2005 823
Figure 1. (A) UV-vis spectra recorded from the as-prepared
silver hydrosol (with an AOT concentration of 5 10-3 M; curve
1) and silver organosols after phase transfer into cyclohexane
(curves 2-4); curves 2-4 correspond to the spectra recorded
from silver nanoparticles capped with 5 10-3, 1 10-2, and
1 10-4 M AOT, respectively. The curves have been displaced
vertically for clarity. The inset shows pictures of test tubes of
silver nanoparticle solutions of the samples in curves 1-4,
respectively. (B) UV-vis spectra recorded from the silver
nanoparticle powder after redispersion in aqueous and nonpolar
organic solvents (curves 1-4). Silver nanoparticles in water
(curve 1), chloroform (curve 2), toluene (curve 3), cyclohexane
(curve 4), and benzene (curve 5). These spectra have been
displaced vertically for clarity.
pictures of a test tube before (test tube 1 on the left) and
after (test tubes 2-4 on the right) phase transfer of the
colloidal Ag particles into cyclohexane (see Experimental
Section). The UV-vis spectra reveal only small shifts in
the absorbance maximum from the aqueous to the organic
phase, where the phase transfer is achieved by shaking
a biphasic mixture of the silver hydrosol and cyclohexane
following the addition of phosphoric acid. Curve 1 corre-
sponds to the UV-vis spectrum recorded from the aqueous
phase and shows a sharp resonance at about 406 nm.
This band arises because of excitation of surface plasmon
vibrations in the silver nanoparticles and is responsible
for the striking yellow color of the silver nanoparticle
solutions. After the phase transfer, the peak is marginally
shifted to around 410 nm. The fact that very little shifts
are observed in the peak positions clearly reveals that the
particles are practically phase transferred as-is without
undergoing any agglomeration.
The resulting organosol was then rotary evaporated
and resulted in a brownish solid powder that could be
readily redispersed in water and different solvents such
as toluene, benzene, chloroform, and cyclohexane. We
would like to emphasize that we did not see perceptible
differences in the time for the redispersibility of this
powder in water or cyclohexane, two solvents differing
vastly in their polarities, indicating that there is no
particular polarity preference that these AOT-capped
silver particles display. We also note that there does not
seem to be any particular size separation upon phase
transferring into different solvents apart from the general
size selection that otherwise seems to occur.23 Apart from
the visual observation to check the phase transferability,
(23) Organic dispersions of nanoparticles obtained after phase
transfer from an aqueous medium in general seem to be more
monodisperse (see ref 18, for example). This could be due to the fact
that the bigger particles present in the aqueous dispersions are not
phase transferred or that evaporation of organic dispersions on the
TEM grids lead to better size segregation and good hexagonal arrange-
ment of the same sized particles on the grid.
824 Langmuir, Vol. 21, No. 3, 2005 Letters

Figure 2. (A) Representative TEM micrograph from a drop-cast film of the as-prepared silver hydrosol. The inset shows the SAED
pattern of the particles indexed to fcc silver. (B) Particle size distribution histogram of the silver nanoparticles. The solid line is
a Gaussian fit to the data. The AOT concentration for the preparation of the sample used in this image is 5 10-3 M.

Figure 3. (A-C) Representative TEM micrographs recorded from drop-cast films of silver organosol in cyclohexane obtained from
the hydrosol prepared with different concentrations of AOT: A, 1 10-2 M; B, 5 10-3 M; and C, 1 10-4 M. The respective particle
size distributions are plotted in the insets. (D) Powder XRD pattern of a film prepared from the sample depicted in Figure 3B.

we have recorded the UV-vis spectra of the solutions that
we obtained after the brownish powder has been redis-
persed in water and different solvents such as toluene,
benzene, chloroform, and cyclohexane. Figure 1B, curve
1, shows the spectrum of the AOT-capped silver nano-
particle powder now redispersed in water. Curves 2-5
correspond to the spectra recorded from the brownish silver
nanoparticle powder after redispersion in chloroform,
toluene, cyclohexane, and benzene, respectively. The small
shifts observed in the peak positions approximately follow
a trend as expected from the refractive index changes in
the solvent. This exercise clearly proves that our simple
method is very effective in getting silver nanoparticles
dispersed in a variety of solvents, including redispersibility
in water.
Figure 2A shows a representative TEM picture of the
as-prepared AOT-capped silver nanoparticles (AOT con-
centration ) 5 10-3 M) in water. Different concentrations
of AOT were used to probe its effect on the resulting
nanoparticle sizes. These changes are reflected better in
the TEM images obtained from the organosols and are
given in Figure 3. The inset of Figure 2A shows the selected
area electron diffraction (SAED) pattern recorded from
the AOT-capped silver hydrosol. In the figure the dif-
fraction rings have been indexed and show that crystal-
linity of the particles is consistent with the face-centered
cubic (fcc) structure of silver. The particle size distribution
analysis (Figure 2B) reveals that the particles are poly-
disperse with an average size of 12 ( 3 nm.
When the initial concentration of AOT in water is varied
systematically the average particle sizes varied as 6.1 (
0.9, 12.3 ( 3, and 10.6 ( 1.8 nm for the AOT concentrations
1 10-2, 5 10-3, and 1 10-4 M, respectively (Figure
3A-C). The critical micelle concentration (cmc) of AOT is
reported to be 2.5 10-3 M. Around the cmc or below the
cmc the particles tend to be bigger. Micelles are considered
equilibrium structures where the surfactant molecules
are always coming out and joining the micellar moiety.
This could explain the larger sizes of particles observed
when we have lower concentrations of the surfactant where
the micelles may not possess very compact structures.
However, when we take an excess quantity of the
surfactant compared to the cmc the micelles are packed
probably in a more compact manner leading to the smaller
sizes of particles observed as in the case of the 1 10-2
M concentration. The XRD pattern recorded from a drop-
cast film of the silver hydrosol prepared in the presence
of 5 10-3 M AOT shows a number of strong Bragg
reflections corresponding to the (111), (200), (220), and
(311) reflections of fcc silver (Figure 3D). The XRD results,
Letters
Figure 4. FTIR spectra in the spectral range 1000-3100 cm-1
recorded from the drop-coated film on the Si(111) substrate.
For clarity the spectra are split in the regions 950-1800 cm-1
(A) and 2600-4000 cm-1 (B). The details of the spectra are as
follows: pure AOT (curve 1); as-prepared AOT-capped silver
hydrosol (curve 2); the silver hydrosol after removal of excess
AOT by dialysis (curve 3); the AOT-capped silver nanoparticle
powder after redispersion in water (curve 4); and the AOT-
capped silver nanoparticle powder after redispersion in chlo-
roform (curve 5). The peaks from the carbonyl stretches almost
disappear after transfer to the organic solvent, and the weak
transmittance in this region is shown in the inset of part A
after a magnification of 100 times.
thus, show that the as-prepared silver nanoparticles are
crystalline.
A systematic FTIR investigation of the as-prepared,
organic dispersed, and aqueous redispersed samples was
carried out to understand the mechanism of phase
transfer. Figure 4 provides the FTIR spectra of the silver
nanoparticles in the aqueous as well as organic environ-
ment (curve 1, spectrum of pure AOT; curve 2, spectrum
of the as-prepared hydrosol in the presence of 5 10-3 M
AOT; curve 3, spectrum recorded from the dialyzed silver
hydrosol; curve 4, spectrum of the AOT-capped silver
nanoparticle powder after redispersion in water; and curve
5, spectrum of the AOT-capped silver nanoparticle powder
after the redispersion in chloroform). For this discussion
the major interest is in the regions 950-1800 cm-1 and
2500-4000 cm-1, and these are plotted separately in
Figure 4A,B, respectively. The CsH symmetric and
antisymmetric stretching vibration frequencies of the s
CH2 groups occur at 2877 and 2934 cm-1 for pure AOT,
and those in as-prepared hydrosol are at approximately
the same frequencies (at 2882 and 2944 cm-1). This might
be due to the large excess of AOT present in the
as-prepared hydrosol. After dialysis the excess AOT is
removed and only the molecules bound to the silver
nanoparticle surface remain. In curve 3 the FTIR spectrum
from the hydrosol after dialysis and removal of excess
AOT is displayed. The stretching frequencies now occur
at 2866 and 2945 cm-1 for the dialyzed silver hydrosol
indicating that the hydrocarbon chain now acquires some
kind of order because it is adsorbed to the silver surface.
However, in the hydrosol the functional (ester and
sulfonate) groups of the AOT molecule are directed toward
the solvent and the molecule is only weakly adsorbed to
the silver surface as a result of some weak van der Waals
interactions (Scheme 1). In the redispersed organosol, on
the other hand, the functional groups are now directed
toward the silver surface and the molecules are arranged
like a self-assembled monolayer with a very good packing
arrangement (Scheme 1). We would like to mention here
that the packing of AOT on the surface may be different
for particles of different sizes because of vast differences
in their curvature. However, with current data we are
Langmuir, Vol. 21, No. 3, 2005 825
unable to make specific comments on the size-dependent
phase transferability aspect of the work. Further work is
in progress to address this interesting point. Here, the
better packing of AOT molecules on the silver surface in
the organic media is known24 to result in stronger shifts
of the sCsH symmetric and antisymmetric stretches
toward lower frequencies, and indeed we observe peaks
at 2852 and 2933 cm-1 (curve 5). The IR spectrum of
hydrosol obtained from the redispersion of the organic
solvent evaporated powder is an exact replica of that of
the dialyzed hydrosol. This clearly indicates that once the
powder is redispersed in water it is undergoing an
orientational change where the functional groups are again
directed toward the solvent environment and that the
hydrocarbon chains are attached to the silver surface,
leading to a poorer packing order.
The absorption band at 1466 cm-1 is ascribed to the
methylene (CH2) scissoring mode in pure AOT (curve 1).
In the as-prepared case this undergoes almost no difference
and occurs at 1471 cm-1 (curve 2). For the dialyzed and
redispersed hydrosols where we probe only the AOT
adsorbed on the silver surface the band is shifted to a
lower frequency at 1460 cm-1 as expected for a poorly
ordered molecule on the surface (curves 3 and 4). Finally,
in the silver organosol (curve 5) this peak is shifted to a
lower frequency and comes at 1448 cm-1 as expected for
a packed and ordered monolayer of hydrocarbons on the
silver surface.23
Coming to the peaks from functional groups we first
consider the sulfonate group. The peaks at 1059 and 1160
cm-1 in the case of pure AOT (curve 1) are assigned to the
symmetric and asymmetric -SdO stretching vibration of
the sulfonate group present in the AOT molecules and are
shifted to 1049 and 1154 cm-1 in as-prepared silver
hydrosol (curve 2). In curves 3 and 4 (dialyzed hydrosol
and redispersed hydrosol, respectively), these occur at
exactly the same frequencies at 1049 and 1154 cm-1, but
in curve 5, that is, silver organosol, they are shifted to
lower frequencies and come at 1033 and 1100 cm-1. This
is because in the organosol the SO3- group is bound to the
silver surface whereas in the hydrosol it is free and is
directed toward the solvent medium.
The most dramatic changes are depicted in the carbonyl
stretches. First, the band at 1736 cm-1 due to carbonyl
stretch vibrations in the AOT molecules (curve 1) is shifted
to 1749 cm-1 in silver hydrosol (curve 2). At this moment
it is not clear why we are observing a small upward shift
in this peak position in the as-prepared hydrosol. However,
once the excess AOT is removed by dialysis the peak comes
at 1729 cm-1, a small shift probably arising because of the
poor ordered state of the molecules on the silver surface.
The scenario changes drastically once the phosphoric acid
is added to the silver hydrosol when the AOT molecule
undergoes a major orientational change and the functional
groups are strongly attached to the silver surface forming
a self-assembled monolayer. Accordingly, in the silver
organosol the peaks due to sCdO almost disappear and
occur at 1736 and as a broad peak at 1667 cm-1 (curve 5).
These peaks are very weak and are displayed in the inset
of Figure 4A after a magnification of 100 times. If the
disappearance of these peaks in the organic medium is
due to the binding and close proximity of these functional
groups to the silver nanoparticle surface, redispersion of
the powder in water should regenerate these peaks.
Indeed, as displayed in curve 4 redispersion of the organic
solvent evaporated powder in water regenerates the peak
(24) Hostetler, M. J.; Stokes, J. J.; Murray, R. W. Langmuir 1996,
12, 3604.
826 Langmuir, Vol. 21, No. 3, 2005
Scheme 1. Schematic Representation of the AOT Orientations on the Silver Nanoparticle Surface in Different
Environments and the Molecular Structure of AOT
at 1729 cm-1 in very good agreement of our hypothesis of
orientational change in AOT molecules brought about by
the solvent environment.
To get a more distinct picture of the role of phosphoric
acid in the phase transfer process, we have tried other
acids to effect the phase transfer of AOT-capped silver
nanoparticles from water to the organic phase. Our results
indicate that the extent of phase transfer varies as HClO4
g H3PO4 > H2SO4 and that addition of HCl destabilizes
the Ag colloid in the aqueous phase itself. While we do not
yet have a clear explanation for the role of the phase
transfer agents, the trends are exactly the same as those
observed by Efrima and co-workers for the oleic acid capped
silver nanoparticle phase transfer procedures. Hence, we
tentatively assume that the hydrogen bonding mechanism
proposed by them is operational in our case as well.18 As
in the Efrima study, it is possible that the capping layer
composed of the phosphoric acid or its anion and functional
moieties of the AOT molecule form a net of hydrogen bonds
and force the functional group of the AOT to turn over
toward the nanoparticle surface in the organic solvent. In
the aqueous phase, on the other hand, the functional
Letters
moieties are better stabilized if they are directed toward
the solvent resulting in the amphiphatic nature observed
here.
Conclusion
A very simple and efficient way where the same molecule
AOT is used for the synthesis, stabilization, and phase
transfer of silver nanoparticles is described. The phase
transfer is actually the most versatile of the reported
methods so far in that the powder obtained after the
organic solvent is evaporated can be redispersed in a
variety of solvents including water.
Acknowledgment. S.K.A. and T.B. thank the De-
partment of Science and Technology (DST) and Council
for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), New Delhi,
respectively, for financial assistance. This work was
partially funded by an internal grant of the National
Chemical Laboratory, Pune, to B.L.V.P., and it is gratefully
acknowledged.
LA047707+