Facile synthesis of anisotropic silver nanoparticles and their surface-enhanced Raman scattering properties

•Anisotropic silver nanoparticles were successfully synthesized.•The formation process was also discussed.•Anisotropic silver nanoparticles exhibits high surface enhanced Raman scattering effect. In this work, polyvinylpyrrolidone(PVP)-capped silver nanoparticles were synthesized using ethylene glycol as solvent and reducing agent through a simple, one-pot solvothermal method at 160°C. UV–vis spectroscopy, TEM and Raman spectra are used to characterize the PVP-capped silver nanoparticles. The results show that the formed silver nanoparticles are anisotropy with different size and morphology such as triangle, hexagon and pentagon. Moreover, the formation process of silver nanoparticles was discussed in detail. Furthermore, the formed silver nanoparticles displayed high surface-enhanced Raman scattering effects.