Synthesis and photophysical study of silver nanoparticles stabilized by unsaturated dicarboxylates

Solution-phase synthesis of nanometer-sized silver particles is reported by sodium borohydride reduction of AgNO_3. Two isomeric dicarboxylates (sodium maleate and sodium fumarate) have been used as stabilizing agents. The dicarboxylate-stabilized silver nanoparticles are characterized by UV-vis spectroscopy, high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HR-TEM) and fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy. A qualitative comparison is made between the UV-vis spectral characteristic of the SPR band and the simulated curve obtained from modified Mie's theory. Silver nanoparticles prepared using these two isomeric dicarboxylates show intense fluorescence in the visible region. DFT with hybrid functional (B3LYP)-based frequency (IR) calculation of both the dicarboxylates and the respective nanoparticles are in good agreement with the experimental IR frequency. On the basis of this calculation a model has been proposed for the stabilization of silver nanoparticles by these two isomeric dicarboxylate anions.