TY - JOUR A1 - Saloga, Patrick E. J. A1 - Kästner, Claudia A1 - Thünemann, Andreas T1 - High-speed but not magic: Microwave-assisted synthesis of ultra-small silver nanoparticles JF - Langmuir N2 - Reaction procedures have been improved to achieve higher yields and shorter reaction times: one possibility is the usage of microwave reactors. In the literature, this is under discussion, for example, nonthermal effects resulting from the microwave radiation are claimed. Especially for the synthesis of nanomaterials, it is of crucial importance to be aware of influences on the reaction pathway. Therefore, we compare the syntheses of ultra-small silver nanoparticles via conventional and microwave heating. We employed a versatile one-pot polyol synthesis of poly(acrylic acid)-stabilized silver nanoparticles, which display superior catalytic properties. No microwave-specific effects in terms of particle size distribution characteristics, as derived by small-angle X-ray scattering and dynamic light scattering, are revealed. Because of the characteristics of a closed system, microwave reactors give access to elevated temperatures and pressures. Therefore, the speed of particle formation can be increased by a factor of 30 when the reaction temperature is increased from 200 to 250 °C. The particle growth process follows a cluster coalescence mechanism. A postsynthetic incubation step at 250 °C induces a further growth of the particles while the size distribution broadens. Thus, utilization of microwave reactors enables an enormous decrease of the reaction time as well as the opportunity of tuning the particle size. Possibly, decomposition of the stabilizing ligand at elevated temperatures results in reduced yields. A compromise between short reaction times and high yields can be found at a temperature of 250 °C and a corresponding reaction time of 30 s. KW - Silver nanoparticles KW - SAXS KW - Small-angle X-ray scattering KW - Microwave synthesis PY - 2018 UR - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-437028 DO - https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.langmuir.7b01541 SN - 0743-7463 SN - 1520-5827 VL - 34 IS - 1 SP - 147 EP - 153 PB - American Chemical Society CY - Washington, D.C. AN - OPUS4-43702 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER -