Silver hydrosol

Recent advances in nanomaterial have produced a new class of fluorescence labels by conjugating noble metal with biomolecules. The nanometer size metal conjugates are water soluble, biocompatible and provide important advantage over the fluorescence dyes. In this regard we synthesized silver nanoparticles at the size of 2-4 nm using biological route and studied fluorescence property of these nanoparticles. We observe that these silver (Ag(+)) ions when exposed to filtrate of Trichoderma viride are reduced in solution, thereby leading to the formation of an extremely stable silver hydrosol...

The interactions between oxazole and water or silver nanoparticles in aqueous dispersions have been studied with a computational approach based on ab initio molecular dynamics simulations, with the Car-Parrinello method, and density functional calculations in combination with Raman and surface enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) experiments. The solvation dynamics of oxazole in water allowed for the characterization of the hydrogen bond between water and solute, which has been shown to occur essentially through the nitrogen atom of the heterocyclic molecule...

The influence of the poly(N-ethyl-2-ethynylpyridinium iodide) (PEEP-I) concentration on the morphology and optical properties of nanocomposite systems prepared by mixing the polymer solution with a hydrosol of ca. 9 nm Ag nanoparticles (NPs) was investigated by a combination of surface plasmon extinction (SPE) measurements, transmission electron microscope (TEM) imaging and surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS). The PEEP-I concentration was found to have a strong impact on the assembly of Ag NPs and, consequently, on the optical responses of the composite systems...

Nanocrystalline Silver-supported activated carbon (AC) was fabricated by directly loading silver nanoparticles into the porous AC matrix from a preformed nanosilver hydrosol. Silver-AC composites were also synthesized using a conventional thermal impregnation method. While XRD calculation indicated the presence of Ag crystallites in nanometer range, silver nanoparticle hydrosol-treated AC having the finest crystallite size CS (< 14.4 nm), SEM images clearly revealed that Ag crystals coalesced significantly with increasing temperature resulting in much larger particle size in thermally impregnated silver-AC composities...

A silver oxide hydrosol has been prepared by reacting silver nitrate with sodium hydroxide in an aqueous solution. The colloidal particle composition and particle size have been characterized by X-ray diffractometry and transmittance electron microscopy. We have demonstrated that the sol is surface-enhanced Raman scattering active. One major advantage of this sol is the absence of the spectral interference arising from reaction products of the sol formation process. The mechanism of surface-enhanced Raman scattering activity is essentially contributed by the silver particles generated from the photochemical process during the laser excitation...

Surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) allows the detection of trace quantities of molecular species adsorbed onto a surface. The potential use of silver colloids as substrates for analytical SERS measurements is demonstrated. Detection limits and other analytical figures of merit for pyridine, p-aminobenzoic acid and p-nitrobenzoic acid are presented.

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This review presents an overview of silver nanoparticles (Ag NPs) preparation by green synthesis approaches that have advantages over conventional methods involving chemical agents associated with environmental toxicity. Green synthetic methods include mixed-valence polyoxometallates, polysaccharide, Tollens, irradiation, and biological. The mixed-valence polyoxometallates method was carried out in water, an environmentally-friendly solvent. Solutions of AgNO(3) containing glucose and starch in water gave starch-protected Ag NPs, which could be integrated into medical applications...

The rapid detection and quantification of saxitoxin (STX) is reported using surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) with a colloidal hydrosol of silver nanoparticles. Under the conditions of our experiments, the limit of detection (LD) for STX using SERS is 3 nM, with a limit of quantification (LQ) of 20 nM. It is shown that the SERS method is rapid, with spectra being collected in as little as 5 seconds total integration time for a 40 nM STX sample. In order to improve the signal-to-noise ratio, SERS spectra were generally collected with a total integration time of 1 minute (6 accumulations of 10 seconds each), with no need for extensive sample work-up or substrate preparation...

The ethanol-mediated phase transfer protocol was extended herein to prepare alkylamine-stabilized nanoparticles of several noble metals by transferring them from aqueous environment into toluene. This method relies on the use of ethanol as a mediator to provide and maintain adequate contact between dodecylamine and metal nanoparticles during the transfer process and involves first mixing the metal hydrosols and an ethanol solution of dodecylamine and then extracting the dodecylamine-stabilized metal nanoparticles into toluene...

Surface-enhanced resonance Raman scattering (SERRS) from dilute solutions (down to nanomolar concentrations) of human mono-oxygenase CYP2D6 is observed using aqueous dispersions of Ag nanoparticles (hydrosol) coated with self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) of mercaptoalkanoic acids of two different lengths. From a direct comparison with its resonance Raman spectrum in solution, CYP2D6 appears to fully retain its native structure upon adsorption on coated hydrosol through electrostatic interaction, while a structural change in the active site is observed when uncoated citrate-reduced hydrosol is used...

Synthesis of silver nanoparticles using alpha-NADPH-dependent nitrate reductase and phytochelatin in vitro has been demonstrated for the first time. The silver ions were reduced in the presence of nitrate reductase, leading to the formation of a stable silver hydrosol 10-25 nm diam. and stabilized by the capping peptide. The nanoparticles were characterized by X-ray diffraction, transmission electron microscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and UV-Vis absorption. These studies will help in designing a rational enzymatic strategy for the synthesis of nanomaterials of different chemical composition, shapes and sizes as well as their separation...

Detection of the interactions between low molecular weight organic compounds and metals in the form of sols on a nanoscale is analytically challenging. This study aims to provide experimental evidence using a combination of UV-Vis absorption spectrometry, surface-enhanced Raman spectrometry (SERS), and static secondary ion mass spectrometry (S-SIMS). The field of application is thermography where silver images are formed via heat-catalyzed reactions. Several organic compounds called tone modifiers and stabilizers are used in thermographic materials for the optimization of the image quality...

Surface enhanced Raman spectrometry (SERS) is an analytical technique with a sensitivity comparable to that of conventional molecular absorption or fluorescence spectroscopy, with the additional major advantage of selectivity inherent in vibrational spectroscopies. The analytical application of flowing silver hydrosols is described. Under the controlled experimental conditions of flow injection analysis, it was possible to detect as low as 30 ng of p-aminobenzoic acid. The linear range was two orders of magnitude (1-100 microg ml(-1)) with a signal reproducibility of 3...

Synthesis of gold and silver hydrosols was carried out in a one-step process by reduction of aqueous solutions of metal salts using poly(N-vinyl-2-pyrrolidone) (PVP). Both kinds of metal nanoparticles were obtained without the addition of any other reducing agent, at low temperatures and using water as the synthesis solvent. Shape, size, and optical properties of the particles could be tuned by changing the employed PVP/metal salt ratio. It is proposed that PVP acts as the reducing agent suffering a partial degradation during the nanoparticles synthesis...

Surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) spectra of the biologically important 2-aminobenzothiazole (2-ABT) molecule adsorbed on silver hydrosols are compared with its FTIR spectrum and normal Raman spectroscopy (NRS) spectrum in the bulk and in solution. The optimized structural parameters and the computed vibrational wavenumbers of the compound have been estimated from ab initio (Hatree-Fock) and density functional calculations. Some vibrational modes of the molecule have been reassigned. Concentration-dependent SERS spectra of the molecule reveal the existence of two types of vertically adsorbed species on colloidal silver particles, whose relative population varies with the adsorbate concentrations...

The halide anion effect on the adsorption of 1,2,3-triazole on Ag and Au colloidal nanoparticles has been investigated by means of surface enhanced Raman scattering (SERS), UV-visible absorption spectroscopy, and scanning electron microscopy. To interpret the SERS spectra, the vibrational spectra of 1,2,3-triazole were assigned with the help of density functional theoretical (DFT) calculations of the two tautomers of 1,2,3-triazole, both free and bound to Ag and Au adatoms. Upon addition of halide anions, both tautomers interact with the Ag surface through one nitrogen atom...

A spectroscopic investigation on the adsorption process of 4-nitro(pyridine N-oxide) (NPO) onto silver colloidal nanoparticles has been performed by Raman and UV-visible absorption measurements. Discrepancies between the Raman spectra of NPO in aqueous solution and in Ag hydrosol prompted an extension of the SERS study to include an investigation on the reactivity of this compound in silver colloidal suspension. The data are diagnostic of a reduction of the nitrogroup of NPO with subsequent formation of 4,4'-azobis(pyridine N-oxide) (APO)...

The adsorption of pyridine onto silver colloids has been investigated by Raman spectroscopy experiments and by ab initio DFT and MP2 calculations. The solvation dynamics of the pyridine in water has been studied by a molecular dynamics simulation. The results are compared with the latest available experimental and theoretical data. It is found that the pyridine is essentially hydrogen bonded to one solvent molecule. Calculations based on pyridine-water and pyridine-Ag(+) complexes allow the reproduction of the experimentally observed Raman features and explain the adsorption process of the ligand in silver hydrosols...

A new citrate-reduced silver hydrosol coated with omega-mercaptoalkanoic acids (mercaptopropionic and mercaptoundecanoic acids) self-assembled monolayers was prepared and characterized with surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy. The structure and the quality of the coating monolayers are discussed and compared to similar coated and uncoated silver hydrosols previously developed. As an application, the new hydrosol was used as a biocompatible and efficient metal substrate for a surface-enhanced resonance Raman scattering (SERRS) study of cytochrome c...