In Situ Synthesis of Size-Controlled Silver/Poly(Methyl Methacrylate) Nanocomposite

In this work, monodispersed silver nanoparticles with controllable size have been successfully in situ synthesized in PMMA matrix. NaHS, HCl and poly (vinyl pyrrolidone) (PVP) were used to optimize the nucleation and growth of silver nanocrystalline. UV–vis analysis and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) were used to characterize the size and dispersion of silver nanoparticles in the Ag/PMMA nanocomposites. The results show that silver nanoparticles homogeneously distribute in PMMA/DMF sol and the particle size of silver nanoparticles increase with the increasing of time. The nucleation of Ag atoms can be facilitated through the addition of a trace amount of NaHS to generate Ag2S clusters as heterogeneous nuclei. Introducing a trace amount of Cl- into the reaction system can effectively reduce the growth rate of the nanoparticles and thus generating more uniform silver nanoparticles in PMMA matrix.