Facile synthesis of single-crystal and controllable sized silver nanoparticles on the surfacesof polyacrylonitrile nanofibres

Abstract

A simple method has been demonstrated for the synthesis of single-crystal andcontrollable sized silver nanoparticles (Ag NPs) homogeneously distributed on thesurfaces of polyacrylonitrile (PAN) nanofibres via electrospinning followed byUV irradiation. Keeping the concentration of PAN at 7 wt%, the diameters ofthe monodisperse single-crystal Ag NPs can be adjusted from 3.5 to 10 nm byvarying the molar ratio of silver nitrate to PAN (in terms of the repeating unit:AN). Transmission electron microscopy (TEM), field emitting scanning electronmicroscopy (FESEM) and x-ray diffraction (XRD) are used to characterize theproducts.