Abstract
Silver nanoparticles were synthesized in the presence of saccharides and ammonia (NH3) in the concentration range from 10−2 to 103 ppm to develop an optical sensor for NH3 in aqueous solutions. Ammonia affects the features of the nanoparticles obtained in a concentration-dependent manner as determined by UV–vis absorption analysis and TEM observations. Structural and morphological analysis provides the basis for the production of a colorimetric label-free sensor for ammonia. Overall, surface plasmon resonance increases when ammonia concentration rises, although the functional trend is not the same over the entire investigated ammonia concentration range. Three different ranges have been identified: very low ammonia concentrations from 0.01 to 0.2 ppm, high ammonia concentrations from 20 to 350 ppm and, most importantly, the intermediate or physiological range of ammonia from 0.5 to 10 ppm.
Highlights
Important sources of ammonia include synthetic fertilizers, oceans, the burning of biomass, the decomposition of plants, natural land [1] and the chemical industry [2]
To analyse the role of ammonia on the optical properties of colloidal solutions of silver nanoparticles, we show in Figure 1 the UV–vis absorption spectra obtained from the most representative samples
Sucralose–glucose silver nanoparticles have been successfully synthetized in presence of ammonia in different concentrations
Summary
Important sources of ammonia include synthetic fertilizers, oceans, the burning of biomass, the decomposition of plants, natural land [1] and the chemical industry [2]. Many authors reported the effect of ammonia on the synthesis of silver nanoparticles in colloidal solutions. Recent results seem to disagree with previous reports about the role of ammonia and show an increase in the plasmon resonance intensity of silver nanoparticles synthesized in the presence of ammonia [23,24].
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