Radiolytic formation of highly luminescent triangular Ag nanocolloids

In this work, luminescent triangular silver nanoparticles were synthesized by radiolytic reduction method. The results showed that by variation of irradiation dose, morphology of silver nanoparticles can be converted from spherical to triangular. These shape variations mainly arise from competition between adsorption rate of polymer chains on (111) facets and reduction rate of the Ag + ions along (110) facets during increasing dose. Furthermore, the dramatically enhanced photoluminescence spectra were observed from triangular Ag nanoparticles. This unusual behavior can be explained by excitation of dipolar and quadrupolar resonance in triangular nanoparticles which increase the electric fields at the surface.