Transition Metal Ion-induced Anisotropic Architectures Using 4,4’-dicarboxy-2,2’-bipyridyl-silver Nanopetals

Department of Chemistry, University of Delhi, Delhi 110 007, India

Adv. Mater. Lett., 2013, Current Issue, 4 (4), pp 252-260

DOI: 10.5185/amlett.2012.8405

Publication Date (Web): Feb 17, 2013

Copyright © IAAM-VBRI Press

Email: tgupta@chemistry.du.ac.in

Abstract

Designing anisotropic nano- and micro-structures are imperative in many technology oriented fields. Here we have reported a self templating method, where flower like microstructure of silver particles were used as template to generate several anisotropic structures such as rectangular cum dumbbell, cubes, hexagonal whiskers, and rectangular bars etc. under controlled catalytic activity of Co²⁺, Ni²⁺, Cu²⁺, and Zn²⁺ respectively. The initial flower like microstructure (template) of silver particles have been prepared from silver salt using disodium salt of 4,4’-dicarboxy-2,2’-bipyridyl(Na2dcbpy) as the reducing as well as capping agent. Then this architecture was used as the initial template to generate several anisotropic structures. The straightforward anisotropic microstructure preparation procedure does not require any other external template, which avoids the subsequent complicated workup. The nucleation processes and optical properties were studied using optical absorption spectroscopy. The anisotropic structure of the as-synthesized Ag particles and the formations of various shaped microstructures have been confirmed by Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM). A possible mechanism has been proposed explaining the role of dcbpy in the growth of silver particles and the transition metal ion induced anisotropic structures.

Keywords

Silver particles, nucleation and growth, nanomaterials, Silver particles, nucleation and growth, nanomaterials.