Arabian Journal of Chemistry (2019) 12, 1823–1838

King Saud University

Arabian Journal of Chemistry

www.ksu.edu.sa
www.sciencedirect.com

REVIEW

Synthesis of silver nanoparticles with different

shapes
a,* b
Bahareh Khodashenas , Hamid Reza Ghorbani

a
Department of Chemical Engineering, Shahrood Branch, Islamic Azad University, Shahrood, Iran
b
Department of Chemical Engineering, Qaemshahr Branch, Islamic Azad University, Qaemshahr, Iran

Received 26 February 2014; accepted 13 December 2014

Available online 6 January 2015

KEYWORDS Abstract Today the synthesis of silver nanoparticles is very common due to their numerous appli-
Silver nanoparticles; cations in various fields. Silver nanoparticles have unique properties such as: optical and catalytic
Shape; properties, which, depend on the size and shape of the produced nanoparticles. So, today the pro-
Synthesis duction of silver nanoparticles with different shapes which have various uses in different fields such
as medicine, are noted by many researchers. This article, is an attempt to present an overview of the
shape-controlled synthesis of silver nanoparticles using various methods.
ª 2015 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of King Saud University. This is an open access
article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

Contents

1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1824
1.1. Investigating the shape of synthesized silver nanoparticles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1824
2. Different shapes of silver nanoparticles synthesized by various methods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1824
2.1. Synthesis of cubic silver nanoparticles. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1824
2.2. Synthesis of silver nanorods. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1826
2.3. Synthesis of silver nanowires . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1826
2.4. Synthesis of silver nanobars . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1829
2.5. Synthesis of triangular (pyramid) silver nanoparticles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1829
2.6. Synthesis of silver nanoprisms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1830
2.7. Synthesis of flower-shaped silver nanoparticles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1830
2.8. Synthesis of Spherical silver nanoparticles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1830

* Corresponding author.
E-mail address: bahar.khodashenas67@gmail.com (B. Khodashenas).
Peer review under responsibility of King Saud University.

Production and hosting by Elsevier

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.arabjc.2014.12.014
1878-5352 ª 2015 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of King Saud University.
This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
1824
2.9. Effective factors on the shape of produced
3. Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
References. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
1. Introduction
A Japanese researcher, Norio Taniguchi, first introduced
Nano technology (Taniguchi, 1974). Over time, the application
of this science became common in various fields such as mate-
rial sciences, electronics, and biotechnology (Bhatt, 2003;
Bohr, 2002; James, 1999; Nathaniel and Mihrimah, 2006;
Sanjeeb and Vinod, 2003). Nanoparticles are of great scientific
interest as they bridge the gap between bulk materials and
atomic or molecular structures (Kaushik Thakkar et al.,
2010). Among various nanoparticles, metal nanoparticles are
the most promising ones and this is due to their anti-bacterial
properties which, occurs because of the high surface to volume
ratio. Change in the size or surface of the composition can
change the physical and chemical properties of the nanoparti-
cles (Kouvaris et al., 2012; Shameli et al., 2012). In recent dec-
ades, the application of metal nanoparticles is very common
due to their wide applications in various industries (Parveen
et al., 2012). By reaching nanoparticles size in a certain range
(1–100 nm), their physical, chemical and electrical properties
will change. These properties depend on silver nanoparticles
size and characteristics such as melting temperature, magnetic
behavior, redox potential and their color can be controlled by
changing their size and shapes (Gurunathan et al., 2009). In
recent years silver nanoparticles have attracted a lot of atten-
tions due to their good conductivity, chemical stability, use
as catalysts (Hussain and Pal, 2008) and their applications in
various industries including the medical sciences, in order to
deal with HIV virus, food industries as anti-bacterial agents
in food packing (Ahmad et al., 2003), anti-bacterial properties
(Hill, 1939) and also their unique electrical and optical quali-
ties (Lue, 2001; Rai et al., 2009).
Studying the mechanism of antibacterial activity of silver
ions and silver nanoparticles showed that this property is
related to the morphological and structural changes in the bac-
terial cell (Henglein, 1989; Woo Kyung et al., 2008).
Studies have shown that the size, morphology, stability and
(chemical and physical) properties of the metal nanoparticles
are influenced strongly by the experimental conditions, the
kinetics of interaction of metal ions with reducing agents,
and adsorption processes of stabilizing agent with metal nano-
particles (Ghorbani et al., 2011). Generally, specific control of
the shape, size and distribution of the produced nanoparticles
is achieved by changing the methods of synthesis, reducing and
stabilizing factors (Yeo et al., 2003; Zhang et al., 2004b; Zhang
et al., 2006; Chimentao et al., 2004; He et al., 2004).
1.1. Investigating the shape of synthesized silver nanoparticles
Incredible properties of nanomaterials strongly depend on size
and, shape of NPs, their interactions with stabilizers and sur-
rounding media and also on their preparation method. So,
B. Khodashenas, H.R. Ghorbani
silver NPs ......................................... 1832
........ .......................................... 1835
........ .......................................... 1835
........ .......................................... 1835
controlled synthesis of nanocrystals is a key challenge to reach
their (nanoparticles) better applied characteristics (El-Kheshen
and El-Rab, 2012). The optical, electronical, magnetic and cat-
alytic properties of nanoparticles depend on their size, shape
and chemical environment (Cao, 2004; Giri et al., 2011). In
recent years, new methods have been proposed to synthesize
non-spherical nanoparticles both planar (triangles, 5 or 6 diag-
onal, round surfaces, etc.) and three dimensional (cubic, pyra-
mid, etc.). Spherical particles with the minimum surface for a
given volume are thermodynamically more stable and if the
reduction of one-capacity silver ions is performed under con-
trolled thermodynamic conditions, the main product will be
spherical nanoparticles (Krutyakov et al., 2008). The shapes
of nanoparticles depend on their interaction with stabilizers
and the inductors around them and also their preparation
method (Haruta, 2004). It is also known that reaction rate is
influenced by the shape of synthesized silver nanoparticles.
Xu et al. studied the oxidation of styrene over three shapes
(nano cube, semi round and triangular nano plate) of silver
nanoparticles for this purpose. The results of this study
showed that the reaction rate in cubic nanoparticles is 14 times
more than triangular nanoplates and 4 times higher than the
semi-spherical nanoparticles (Fig. 1) (Xu et al., 2006).
Abid et al. showed that by using various irradiation meth-
ods silver nanoparticles could be synthesized. Laser irradiation
of aqueous solution of a silver salt and surfactant could syn-
thesize silver nanoparticles with suitable shape and size
(Abid et al., 2002).
2. Different shapes of silver nanoparticles synthesized by various
methods
2.1. Synthesis of cubic silver nanoparticles
Sun and Xia (2002a) could synthesize cubic silver nanoparti-
cles by the reduction of silver nitrate using ethylene glycol in
the presence of poly(vinyl pyrrolidone) (PVP). The results of
this study have shown that the morphology of the product is
strongly influenced by the reaction conditions such as temper-
ature, AgNO3 concentration and molar ratio of the units of
PVP and AgNO3. For example, when the temperature reduced
from 161 C to 120 C or increased to 190 C, the shapes of
produced silver nanoparticles were irregular. Moreover, the
input concentration of AgNO3, as the next effecting factor
should be higher than 0.1 M. Otherwise, silver nanowires will
be the main product. If the molar ratio of the repeating unit
of PVP and AgNO3 increases from 1.5 to 3, the main product
would be multiply twinned particles (MTPs) (Sun et al.,
2002a). Im et al. could synthesize uniform silver nanocubes
by reduction of silver nitrate using ethylene glycol at 140 C
in the presence of poly(vinyl pyrrolidone) (PVP) and HCl
(Im et al., 2005).
Synthesis of silver nanoparticles with different shapes 1825

Figure 1 (a). TEM images of truncated triangular Ag nanoplates (left), near-spherical (middle), and cubic (right) silver NPs supported
on Cu-TEM grids and their structural models. The insets show scanning electron microscopy images (top left corner) and electron
diffraction patterns from selected areas (top right corner).(b) Specific reaction rate of styreneconversion over Ag NPs with different
shapes. Reaction time: 3 h (Xu et al., 2006).

In polyol process, alcohol containing hydroxyl groups such 2Agþ þ 2CH3 CHO ! CH3 CO–OCCH3 þ 2Ag þ 2Hþ ð2Þ
as ethylene glycol and pentanediol act as both solvent and
Once the concentration of silver atoms has reached the super-
reducing agent. A capping agent, poly(vinyl pyrrolidone)
saturation level, they will begin to nucleate and grow into sil-
(PVP) was used to build the cubic shape. Finally, molar ratio
ver nanostructures in the solution phase (Siekkinen et al.,
of the repeating units of PVP and silver ions determines the
2006). Siekkinen et al. (2006) found a faster method for the
morphology of the product (Tao et al., 2006). High molar ratio
synthesis of silver nanocubes. In this method, adding small
is used for nanocubes and low molar ratio is used for nano-
amounts of sodium sulfide (Na2S) or sodium hydrosulfide
wires. In addition, very small amounts of chloride ions due
(NaHS) to the conventional polyol synthesis decreased the
to precipitation of the low-solubility of AgCl salt prevents
reaction time significantly (from 16–26 to 3–8 min). By simply
the rapid reduction of metal ions, it eventually leads to the for-
adjusting the reaction time monodispersed silver nanocubes
mation of nanocubes (Wiley et al., 2004). Tao et al. came to
with the edge length of 25–45 nm, with numerous biomedical
synthesize silver nanocubes using an experimental procedure
applications, were produced in large-scale and short time
(Tao et al., 2006), in which silver nitrate acted as precursor,
(Siekkinen et al., 2006).
PVP was used to control the shape, and pentanediol (PDO-
Young synthesized silver nanocubes with a diameter of 30–
1.5 H) was used as both solvent and reducing agent.
50 nm using the polyol process in which, ethylene glycol acted
Wiley et al. (2006) synthesized three different shapes of sil-
as both the reducing agent and the solvent. In their study silver
ver nanoparticles using polyol chemical method, in which eth-
nitrate was reduced by ethylene glycol in the presence of a cap-
ylene glycol (EG) acted as both solvent and reducing agent.
ping agent, poly(vinyl pyrrolidone) (PVP) (Young et al., 2007).
The interesting point was that the reduction ratio could be
Skrabalak et al. (2007) could synthesize silver nanocubes with
controlled by changing the reaction temperature. In the exper-
a rapid method (reaction time <15 min) by sulfide-mediated
iment, PVP acted as a stabilizer to prevent the aggregation of
polyol method in which Ag(I) was reduced to Ag(0) by ethyl-
nanoparticles, as a reducing agent and also as a substance to
ene glycol in the presence of PVP and a trace amount of Na2S.
control the shape of nanoparticles. The group was able to syn-
When the concentration of silver atoms reaches supersatura-
thesize silver nanocubes with controllable corner truncation
tion, they agglomerate into seed shape and then grow to the
using Cl (NaCl) (Wiley et al., 2006).
nanostructures form. Presence of PVP and Na2S facilitate
It was proved that in polyol synthesis, silver atoms are
the formation of silver nanocubes (Skrabalak et al., 2007).
formed by reducing AgNO3 with ethylene glycol through the
Rycenga et al. (2008) synthesized Ag nanocubes by reduction
following mechanism:
of Silver Nitrate (AgNO3) with ethylene glycol (EG) in the
2HOCH2 CH2 OH ! 2CH3 CHO þ 2H2 O ð1Þ presence of PVP and HCl. Following synthesis, the Ag nano-
cubes were isolated by centrifugation, washed with water to
1826 B. Khodashenas, H.R. Ghorbani

remove EG and excess PVP, and finally dispersed in deionized

water for storage (Rycenga et al., 2008). Huang et al. synthe-
sized silver nanocubes in an alkalic aqueous solution of
AgNO3/carboxymethylated chitosan (CMCTS) by ultraviolet
(UV) light irradiation, in which (CMCTS) was used to reduce
the silver cation and as the stabilizer of silver nanoparticles.
The synthesized silver nanoparticles were in the range of 2–
8 nm (Huang et al., 2008). Zhang et al. produced silver nano-
cubes with edge length of 30 to 70 nm using CF3COOAg as a
precursor. By adding trace amounts of sodium hydrosulfide
(NaHS) and hydrochloric acid (HCl) into the polyol synthesis,
Ag nanocubes were observed with good quality and high
reproducibility (Zhang et al., 2010). Zeng et al., 2010 studied
the effects of capping agents on shape control for Ag nanocrys- Figure 3 A single Ag nanorod (Xu et al., 2006).
tals. They found that cubic shaped silver nanoparticles could
be selectively obtained by introducing PVP, as the capping
Orendoff et al., could synthesize significant amounts of sil-
agent (Zeng et al., 2010). Poinern et al., synthesized silver
ver nanorods with transverse and longitudinal plasmon peaks.
nanocubes at room temperature using the leaf extracts from
The synthesis process involved reduction of AgNO3 with
Eucalyptus macrocarpa. In the synthesis process, leaf extract
NaBH4 in the presence of citrate and continued by growth
acted as both reducing and stabilizing agent. TEM micro-
of seeds into nanorods in the presence of ascorbic acid and
graphs showed the presence of both spherical and cubic shaped
cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB). Finally, a mixture
silver nanoparticles. The spherical Ag NPs ranged in size from
of spherical and rod nanoparticles was synthesized that could
10 to 100 nm, while the cubic shaped ranged in size from 10 to
be isolated and purified by centrifugation (Orendoff et al.,
50 nm. Three dimensional image of FESEM taken after a per-
2006). Gu et al. synthesized silver nanorods. For the first time
iod of several hours revealed that the predominant shapes in
in their study, they used potassium tartaric for reduction of sil-
the synthesis were cubic nanoparticles with 50 nm–1 lm size
ver nitrate in the presence of poly(vinyl pyrrolidone) (PVP). By
(Poinern et al., 2013). SEM image of nanocubes is shown in
changing the AgNO3/PVP ratio, diameter and length of silver
Fig. 2.
nanorods can be controlled (Gu et al., 2006). Xu et al. were
able to synthesize Ag nanorods using a simple chemical depo-
2.2. Synthesis of silver nanorods sition method with the help of porous aluminum membrane
(PAM). Ag+ ions in PAM nano channels were reduced by
Generally nanorods can be made by thermal (Pérez-Juste et al., acetaldehyde, and leading in the formation of nanorod struc-
2005), photochemical (Kim et al., 2002), and electrochemistry- tures. The study found that the diameter and length of Ag
based template (Martin, 1994) methods. Aslan et al. used a wet nanorods are determined by PAM template and the length
chemical method for deposition of silver nanorods on conven- of the Ag nanorods depends on the reaction temperature.
tional glass substrates. First, silver seeds were prepared in solu- (Fig. 3) (Xu et al., 2010).
tion. Silver nitrate is reduced to silver nanoparticles with a size Hu et al. (2012) could synthesize Ag nanorods using oxida-
of 2 ± 4 nm by sodium borohydride and in the presence of tion reduction growth (ORG) by sputtering without catalysts
sodium citrate. Silver nanorods grow in the solution with the or chemical solutions (Hu et al., 2012). A schematic diagram
injection of silver seeds into the growth medium containing sil- for the oxidation reduction growth of silver nanorods in their
ver nitrate, ascorbic acid and cetyltrimethylammonium bro- study is shown in Fig. 4. In Fig. 4(a), at the beginning of sput-
mide (CTAB). The solution color was light first and then tering, a thin silver film was predeposited on the Si surface with
turned to green after completion of the reaction (Aslan a constant flow of 15 sccm argon gas. Then, a trace amount of
et al., 2005). oxygen, as the source of plasma to form the silver oxide seed
during sputtering, was added and mixed with argon
Fig. 4(b). In the sputtering process, the sample temperature
will increase to between 200 C and 300 C and because the
melting point of silver oxide is normally around 300 C, it
allows silver oxide to dissolve and release O2 (Fig. 4(c)). In
the last part of Fig. 4(d), silver nanorods start to grow from
the reduction metal silver site, without oxygen.

2.3. Synthesis of silver nanowires

Liu et al., reported that formation of silver nanowires could

not be completed without a template. These studies led to
the belief that the formation of 1D silver nanostructures
needed a physical template such as carbon nanotubes or zeo-
lites in order to achieve nanowire shapes. So, they used AgBr
crystals and a developer (such as AgNO3) with gelatinous tem-
Figure 2 SEM of sharp nanocubes (Wiley et al., 2006). plate and finally could synthesize silver nanowires with diame-
Synthesis of silver nanoparticles with different shapes 1827

Figure 4 Growth mechanism of Ag nanorods during sputtering process (Hu et al., 2012).

ters of 80 nm and 9 lm length. This group discovered that for-

mation of silver nanowires originated from silver nitrate (not
from silver bromide crystals) (Liu et al., 2001). Jana et al.,
using rod-like micelle template in cetyltrimethylammonium
bromide (CTAB) process, successfully synthesized silver nano-
wires (Jana et al., 2001). Sun et al. used soft, solution-phase
method that did not require dissolution and disintegration of
hard templates for the synthesis of silver nanowires. In their
experiment, they found that reduction of silver nitrate is possi-
ble using ethylene glycol (EG) at the temperature of 160 C
and subsequently adding a solution of silver nitrate and poly- Figure 5 Schematic illustration of the experimental mechanisms
vinylpyrrolidone (PVP) to the solution leading to the forma- to generate spherical, rod and wire-like nanoparticles (Tang and
tion of silver nanowires with diameters of 30–40 nm and Tsuji, 2010).
length of 50 lm (Sun et al., 2002a). Sun et al., were also able
to synthesize uniform silver nanowires by taking advantage
glycol in the presence of PVP. Finally, the diameter of pro-
of the selectively adsorption on the {1 0 0} facets of PVP. They
duced silver nanoparticles was reported to be in the range of
observed that, if PVP is absent or added in low amounts, the
150–200 nm and the length of 50–100 lm (Jiang et al., 2004).
main products are mainly nanospheres. Meanwhile, they
Wiley et al., synthesized silver pentagonal nanowires using pol-
found that silver nanoparticles with irregular morphology were
yol chemical method, where ethylene glycol (EG) acted as sol-
formed in the presence of lower molecular weight PVP (Sun
vent and reducing agent. Silver nanowires can be grown from
et al., 2002b, 2003b; Sun and Xia, 2002b).
multiply twinned seeds in the presence of Cl if etching is pre-
Hu et al. used a seedless surfactant process to produce high-
vented either by running the reaction under argon, or by sim-
quality silver nanowires in large quantities. Silver nitrate is
ply adding Fe(II) or Fe(III) at a molar ratio of
reduced by Tri-sodium citrate (Na3C6H5O7) in the presence
Ag:Fe = 11,000. The main material for the synthesis of silver
of sodium dodecylsulfonate (SDSN). Tri-sodium citrate was
nanowire was iron(II) acetylacetonate, which was added to
an important factor in this process and sodium dodecylsulfo-
PVP solution (Wiley et al., 2006). Zhang et al., using mild
nate acted as a capping agent in the formation of Ag nano-
chemical reduction method in aqueous solutions of poly(meth-
wires. It has been proved that by changing the concentration
acrylic acid) produced silver nanowires at room temperature
of tri-sodium citrate the diameters of produced silver nano-
with 30–40 nm diameters (Zhang et al., 2004a). Cong et al.,
wires can be controlled. It also became clear that in too high
for the first time synthesized silver nanowires with different
or too low concentrations of SDSN, silver nanowires cannot
shapes: Y-shaped, K-shaped and multi-branched nanowires.
be produced (Hu et al., 2004). Fig. 5 shows the proposed sche-
The branched nano-structures were synthesized by reduction
matic illustration for the growth of Ag nanorods and
of silver nitrate (AgNO3) in polyethylene glycol (PEG) with
nanowires.
polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) as a capping agent. These nano-
Jiang et al., claimed that the use of physical templates lim-
structures are typically synthesized by molar ratio of 3.3:1
ited the yield of silver nanowires production. So, synthesized
between repeating units of PVP and AgNO3. The synthesis
silver nanowires using polyol reduction of silver with ethylene
1828
of branched nanowires strongly depends on the molar ratio of
PVP to AgNO3, reaction temperature, polymerization degree
of reducing agent and PVP (Cong et al., 2012). Hsieh et al.,
produced Ag NWs at 160 C using a microwave-assisted
(MA) approach from AgNO3 and using PVP as the capping
agent in the presence of ethylene glycol(EG) (Hsieh et al.,
2012). Fu et al., synthesized Ag–Au bimetallic nanowires by
a wet chemical method at room temperature. The nanowires
were obtained by the reduction with vanadium oxide (V2O3)
nanoparticles. Diameter of produced silver nanowires was
20 nm and their length reported to be up to 10 lm (Fu
et al., 2013). Chen et al. could synthesize silver nanostructures
including silver nanowires using microwave-assisted polyol
method by adding sodium sulfide (Na(2)S) into the solution.
The results showed that increasing the concentration of
Na(2)S up to 750 microM in 400 W leads to the production
of silver nanowires (Chen et al., 2010). Y. Chang et al. synthe-
sized silver nanowires using ethylene glycol and the diameter of
synthesized nanoparticles can be controlled by addition of
chloride ions. Synthesis process consists of two distinct steps:
nucleation and growth. The final diameter of nanowires which
was in the range of 55–100 nm, became smaller by adding
more chloride ions to the second phase of synthesis (Y.
Chang et al., 2011). Zhang et al. (using a steel-assisted polyol
SAP method could synthesize silver nanowires at high concen-
trations of silver nitrate (up to 0.5 M). The average diameter of
products could be adjusted from 100 to 300 nm by increasing
the synthetic concentration (input concentration of AgNO3)
(Zhang et al., 2008). Bhattacharyya et al. (2000) synthesized
silver nanowires with a diameter of 340 nm and length of
0.3 mm. These nanowires were synthesized by electrodeposit-
ion in silica gel pores that were heated (in a temperature range
between 523 and 823 K) and then soaked in a silver nitrate
solution (Bhattacharyya et al., 2000). Zhu, et al. synthesized
silver nanowires using polyol method at different molecular
weights of poly vinyl pyrrolidone (PVP) as capping agent.
The results of this study showed that the yields and aspect
ratios of silver nanowires could be controlled by PVP chain
length so that increasing the molecular weight of PVP,
increased them. The proposed theory is that the chemical
absorption of silver ions on PVP chain in the early stages leads
the production of silver nanowires (Zhu et al., 2011).
Figure 6 (a) The proposed mechanism by which Fe(II) removes atomic oxygen from the surface of silver nanostructures. Reduction by
ethylene glycol (EG) competes with oxidation by atomic oxygen to form an equilibrium between Fe(III) and Fe(II) (Wiley et al., 2005c).
(b) A schematic illustration depicting the role of Cu-containing salts in the polyol synthesis of Ag nanowires. Molecular oxygen present
during initial seed formation can absorb and dissociate on the (Oa) Ag seeds. Cu(I) rapidly scavenges this absorbed atomic oxygen (Tang
and Tsuji, 2010).
B. Khodashenas, H.R. Ghorbani
Liu et al. (2006) found a simple aqueous route to synthesize
silver nanowires in large-scale at room temperature through
the reaction of AgNO3 and sodium diphenylamine sulfonate.
The advantage of this approach was that it did not require
nanoporous membranes, surfactant, seed, and heating. It can
be used for the synthesize of metallic nanoparticles with differ-
ent shapes, due to its simplicity (Liu et al., 2006). Research
results have shown that adding small amounts of salts such
as NaCl, Fe(NO)3, CuCl2 and CuCl could affect on the shape
of nanoparticle. Usually, salt-mediated synthesis is a simple
and effective method for the synthesis of silver nanowires
(Korte et al., 2008; Wiley et al., 2005a). For example, some
researchers (Korte et al., 2008; Wiley et al., 2005a) synthesized
silver nanowires by reduction of AgNO3 with EG heated to
148 C in the presence of PVP and a small amount of NaCl.
In order to obtain silver nanowires, oxygen must be removed
from the reaction mixture in the presence of Cl anions. In
the synthesis of silver nanowires by Korte et al., the reduction
reactions were performed using CuCl or mediated CuCl2 in the
polyol process, but it was done without introducing any inert
gases (Korte et al., 2008). Wiley et al., used iron for polyol syn-
thesis of silver nanoparticles. By adjusting the concentration of
Fe(II) or Fe(III) in the polyol reduction of silver nitrate, by
simply varying the concentration of iron ions, they could pro-
duce either silver nanocubes or nanowires. They showed that
high concentrations of iron ions prevented selective oxidation
of twinned seeds and led the formation of nanowires. Fig. 6(a)
shows the role of Fe(II) in removing atomic oxygen from the
surface of silver nanostructures (Wiley et al., 2005c).
Fig. 6(b) shows the role of Cu containing salts in the polyol
synthesis of Ag nanowires. Cu(I) can remove adsorbed atomic
oxygen from the surface of silver seeds and leads the growth
and formation of silver nanowires. A trace amount of Cl as
an important role in the polyol synthesis of silver nanowires:
(1) provides electrostatic stabilization for the initially formed
silver seeds and (2) reduces the concentration of free Ag+ ions
in the solution through the formation of AgCl nanocrystallites
(Tang and Tsuji, 2010).
Synthesis of metal nanoparticles (such as Ag nanoparticles)
using template method is cheap and easy to operate and can
produce nanowires. Generally, various template methods for
synthesizing multishaped nanostructures include (1) using hard
Synthesis of silver nanoparticles with different shapes
templates such as anodic aluminum oxide (AAO), (2) using
soft templates such as cetyltrimethylammonium bromide
(CTAB) and (3) using sacrificial templates (Chen and Liu,
2011). Baoliang Sun et al. could synthesize silver nanowires
by hard templates (AAO) method (Sun et al., 2009).
Nghia et al., synthesized silver nanowires by the polyol pro-
cess in ethylene glycol as a reducing agent, (PVP) as a stabi-
lizer, using a microwave technique. Presence of sodium
chloride in the polyol reduction of silver nitrate facilitates sil-
ver nanowires production. The formation time was very short
(about 3 min under microwave heating). Studies showed that
the size and shape of silver nanostructures strongly depended
on the reaction parameters such as concentration of PVP,
NaCl, AgNO3 and heating time. It was found that low concen-
trations of PVP (50 mM), 3 mM NaCl concentration in the
culture and heating time of 3 min were favorable conditions
for the production of silver nanowires. The advantage of this
study was the use of NaCl which was much cheaper than H2-
PtCl6 (Nghia et al., 2012). Kou et al. could produce Ag nano-
wires with controlled diameters using Glycerol (the material is
cheap, abundant and environmentally friendly), which was
used as both solvent and reductant under non-stirred micro-
wave irradiation. Nanowires in this test were reportedly
formed at very short time (1 min) (Kou and Varma, 2013).
SEM image of nanowires has been shown in Fig. 7 (Wiley
et al., 2006).
Recently, a large number of capping agents such as PVP,
CTAB, Sodium Dodecylsulfonate (SDS) and Vitamin B2 have
been used to control the anisotropic growth of silver seeds to
obtain nanowires through soft solution reactions. Among
these, PVP is the most popular one in the synthesis of silver
nanowires. Also, it has been proved that NaCl, chloride ion,
sodium chloride and controls in the polyol reduction of
AgNO3, have important function in the fabrication of silver
nanowires (Yan et al., 2010).
2.4. Synthesis of silver nanobars
Wiley et al. (2007) in another article synthesized silver nano-
bars. The method used in this study was the polyol method,
in which ethylene glycol (EG) acted as both solvent and reduc-
Figure 7 TEM image of silver nanowires, aspect ratio 100
(Murphy and Jana, 2002).
1829
Figure 8 TEM image of the silver nanobars (Wiley et al., 2007).
ing agent. At the beginning of the experiment, two solutions,
one containing 48 mg AgNO3 in 3 ml EG and the other con-
taining 48 mg poly vinyl pyrrolidone (PVP) and 0.068 mg
NaBr in 3 mL of EG using a two channel syringe pump added
dropwise to 5 ml of EG, which reached 155 C in the oil bath.
The reaction was stopped after 1 h and Figures of silver nano-
bars were obtained using the scanning electron microscopy
(SEM). The remarkable point here is the effect of NaBr con-
centration on the production of silver nanoparticles (Wiley
et al., 2007). Wiley et al. in their earlier research used low con-
centrations of NaBr (Ag:Br = 850) in order to synthesize the
pyramid-shaped silver nanoparticles. But they observed that
the required concentration of NaBr for the synthesis of silver
nanobars was double the amount required for the synthesis
of bipyramids (Wiley et al., 2006). TEM image of the silver
nanobars (Wiley et al., 2007) (Fig. 8).
2.5. Synthesis of triangular (pyramid) silver nanoparticles
A photochemical route was the first reliable and high yielding
method for making solution-phase triangular Ag nanoprisms
in which, the edge length can be controlled with excitation
wavelength (Jin et al., 2001). Yamamoto et al., synthesized tri-
angular silver nanoplates using the microwave promoted
(MW) reduction of silver nitrate in aqueous solutions contain-
ing PVP (Yamamoto et al., 2004). Wiley et al., synthesized
right bipyramids shaped silver nanoparticles using chemical
polyol method, in which ethylene glycol (EG) was the solvent
and reducing agent applying (NaBr) Br (Wiley et al., 2006).
Dong et al., 2010 could synthesize triangular silver nanoprisms
using a stepwise reduction method in the absence of surfactant
or special capping-agent. For this purpose, first small spherical
silver nanoparticles were prepared by the rapid reduction of
the precursor (silver nitrate) with NaBH4 (the strong reductant
which, acted at the low temperature) at ice-bath temperature.
The remaining precursor was further reduced by citrate (the
weak reductant which, acted at the high temperature) under
70 C to result in the formation of additional small spherical
nanoparticles and induce the transformation of the spherical
nanoparticles into the triangular nanoprisms. In this study it
was found that the formation of the triangular nanoprisms is
dependent on the molar ratios of two reductants (NaBH4
and trisodium citrate) used in the reactions. The residual silver
ions after the formation of the spherical nanoparticles are nec-
1830
essary to promote their dissolution and transformation into
the triangular nanoprisms. It can be said that, a balance
between the precursor contributed to the formation of the
small spherical particles and that to the transformation of
the spherical nanoparticles is critical for the synthesis of the tri-
angular nanoprisms (Dong et al., 2010). Kelly et al., synthe-
sized the triangular-shaped silver nanoparticles. The used
method was based on seed-mediated process involving reduc-
tion of silver ions by ascorbic acid in aqueous solution and also
poly vinyl alcohol, citrate and polystyrenesulphonate as mod-
ifiers (Kelly et al., 2012). Millstone et al., reviewed a variety of
solution-based methods like: Photochemical Syntheses and
Thermal Syntheses (Chemical Reduction Methods), for syn-
thesizing triangular Au and Ag triangular nanoprisms because
of the mentioned reasons: (1) These structures have plasmonic
features in the visible and IR regions, (2) they can be prepared
in high yield and (3) can be readily functionalized with a vari-
ety of sulfur-containing adsorbates. They showed that in some
cases, by adjusting experimental parameters, such as: metal ion
and reducing agent ratios, surfactant concentrations, pH, irra-
diation wavelength, seed particle concentration and type, the
dimensions of nanoprism can be controlled (Millstone et al.,
2009).
Kai et al., could synthesize triangular silver nanoparticles
by chemical reduction method. This was done via an appropri-
ate method that was quick and easy. Finally, in order to
observe and investigate silver nanoparticles, transmission elec-
tron microscopy and UV–visible spectrophotometer devices
were used. Results showed that if silver nitrate, polyvinyl pyr-
rolidone and hydrazine hydrate were used as reagent, stabiliz-
ing factor and reducing agent, respectively, triangular silver
nanoparticles with edge lengths in the size range of 50–
200 nm were synthesized (Kai et al., 2012). Fig. 9 shows pyra-
mid silver nanoparticles (Wiley et al., 2006).
2.6. Synthesis of silver nanoprisms
Generally, chemical reduction of metal salts (Métraux and
Mirkin, 2005; Xue and Mirkin, 2007; Aherne et al., 2008)
and photochemical growth (Bastys et al., 2006; Tsuji et al.,
2012) are two methods which, have been used for the synthesis
of silver Nanoprisms. It is proved that the former chemical
reduction method is better than the photochemical method
for mass production of silver prisms, which is necessary for
industrial applications. Métraux and Mirkin used a unique
Figure 9 Pyramid silver nanoparticles (Wiley et al., 2006).
B. Khodashenas, H.R. Ghorbani
Figure 10 TEM images of the solutions containing nanoprisms
synthesized with ethylene glycol monoethyl ether (EEE)
(Darmanin et al., 2012).
simple chemical reduction method for the preparation of silver
nanoprisms. They used a mixture of AgNO3/NaBH4/polyvi-
nylpyrrolidone (PVP)/trisodium citrate (Na3CA)/H2O2 in an
aqueous solution as reagents to prepare silver nanoprisms at
room temperature (Métraux and Mirkin, 2005).
Darmanin et al., could produce high concentrations of sil-
ver nanoprisms with controllable size ((height) of the pyramid)
and size disparity. In this study, they showed that synthesis of
silver nanoprisms can be performed by careful selection in the
parameters of polyol method especially in the reducing agent
(Darmanin et al., 2012). Fig. 10 shows TEM image of silver
nanoprisms (Darmanin et al., 2012).
2.7. Synthesis of flower-shaped silver nanoparticles
Cai and Zhai (2010) using a wet-chemical method synthesized
different shaped silver microparticles, including flower-shaped
silver microstructures. These particles were synthesized by
reducing of silver nitrate (AgNO3) using ascorbic acid and in
the presence of PVP (Cai and Zhai, 2010). Pourjavadi and
Soleyman used a wet-chemical method for producing flower-
like microsized Ag crystals. Fig. 11(a) shows SEM image of
produced particles (Pourjavadi and Soleyman, 2011).Zaheer
and Rafiuddin (2011) could synthesize flower-like silver nano-
particles at room temperature using a simple chemical reduc-
tion method. The synthesis process occurred using silver
nitrate, ascorbic acid (as a reducing agent) and cetyltrimethyl-
ammonium bromide (CTAB). Also, in this study the effect of
reductant concentration, mixing ratio of the reactants and the
concentration of cetyltrimethylammonium bromide as the
important parameters for the formation of stable silver nano-
particles were studied. TEM image of produced silver nano-
particles has been shown in Fig. 11(B) (Zaheer and
Rafiuddin, 2011).
2.8. Synthesis of Spherical silver nanoparticles
Kai et al., could synthesize spherical silver nanoparticles via
convenient (quick and easy) method at room temperature
and by chemical reduction method and finally used transmis-
sion electron microscopy and UV–visible spectrophotometer
in order to observe and investigate the produced nanoparticles.
If silver nitrate, polyvinyl pyrrolidone and sodium borohy-
Synthesis of silver nanoparticles with different shapes
Figure 11 A: SEM images of flower-like silver NPs (Pourjavadi and Soleyman, 2011); B: TEM images of flower-like Ag-nanoparticles
(Zaheer and Rafiuddin, 2011).
dride are used as the reagent, stabilizing factor and reducing
agents respectively, spherical and monodisperse silver nano-
particles of 9.0 nm sizes are synthesized (Kai et al., 2012).
Liang et al., could synthesize spherical silver nanoparticles
using polyol method in which polyethylene glycol (PEG) acted
as both solvent and reducing agent and polyvinyl pyrrolidone
(PVP) as capping agent. Uniform nanospheres with an average
diameter of 54 nm using molar ratio of 8 among repeating
units of PVP and AgNO3 at 260 C were produced (Liang
et al., 2010). Qin et al. synthesized spherical silver nanoparti-
cles using ascorbic acid as a reducing agent and citrate as sta-
bilizer in aqueous bath with 30 C. It was observed that by
increasing the pH from 6 to 11.5, the average size of produced
silver nanoparticles declined from 73 to 31 nm. They also
found that heating at the temperatures of 100 C for 2 h chan-
ged the shape of synthesized silver nanoparticles to more
spherical-like (Qin et al., 2010). Aguilar-Méndez et al. could
synthesize spherical silver nanoparticles with a small size (less
than 20 nm) by the reduction of silver nitrate solution using
glucose in the presence of gelatin as a capping agent. The aver-
age size of produced nanoparticles was between 5 and 24 nm
and the colloidal solution remained stable for more than
3 months at room temperature (Aguilare et al., 2011). Pya-
tenko et al. could synthesize spherical silver nanoparticles
using a new method which was a combination of seed tech-
nique and laser treatment. The size of spherical silver nanopar-
ticles ranged from 10 to 80 nm (Pyatenko et al., 2007).
Figure 12 Formation of rods, spherical and hexagonal plates of silver nano particles in the absence and presence of stabilizers (AL-
Thabaiti et al., 2013).
1831
Moghimi-Rad et al., could synthesize pure silver nanopar-
ticles through wet chemical reaction in the presence of capping
agent and surfactant under ultrasound radiation. In order to
produce silver nanoparticles, ascorbic acid reduced aqueous
solution of silver nitrate in the presence of dodecylbenzenesulf-
onic acid sodium, polyvinylpyrrolidone and a mixture of
organic and aqueous solutions. In this study, the branched,
cubic, spherical and porous structures were formed by self-
arrangement of surfactant as a template under ultrasound
radiation. Analysis of scanning electron microscopy and trans-
mission electron microscopy demonstrated that the morphol-
ogy and size of nanoparticles was influenced by: (1) capping
agent, (2) presence of ultrasound radiation and (3) crystalliza-
tion time (Moghimi-Rad et al., 2011).
AL-Thabaiti examined the effect of surfactants and poly-
mers on metallic nanoparticle (silver). In this study, thiosulfate
was used as a reducing agent, and cetyltrimethylammonium
bromide (CTAB) and poly vinyl alcohol (PVA) were used as
stabilizers. Their results showed that nano-materials having a
range of optical properties can be prepared through careful
control over the concentration of sodium thiosulfate in solu-
tion. As it can be seen in the figure, the presence or absence
of stabilizers leads to the production of three different shapes
(rod, spherical and hexagonal plates) of silver nanoparticles
(AL-Thabaiti et al., 2013). Fig. 12 shows the sculpturing effects
of CTAB and PVA in shape transformation of silver nanopar-
ticles (AL-Thabaiti et al., 2013).
1832
Tsuji et al., could synthesize silver nanoparticles with differ-
ent shapes using microwave irradiation and glycol-H2 [PtCl6]-
poly(vinylpyrrolidone) ethylene – silver nitrate solution. In this
study a mixture of different shaped silver nanoparticles consist
of: nanorods, nanowires, spherical, cubic, and triangular bipy-
ramidal nanoparticles were prepared by reduction of Ag+ ions
in ethylene glycol by the addition of H2[PtCl6] and poly-(vinyl-
pyrrolidone) (PVP) within three minutes. Although, it was pre-
viously believed that 1-D Ag nanostructures can only be
produced in the presence of a capping agent like PVP, Tsuji
et al. in their study found that different shaped (Ag 1-D nano-
rods, nanowires, cubic and triangular-bipyramidal) silver
nanoparticles can be produced without the addition of PVP
in the presence of Cl (Tsuji et al., 2008).
2.9. Effective factors on the shape of produced silver NPs
As it has been shown in various studies, the shape and size of
produced silver nanoparticles depend on the experimental con-
ditions such as: temperature, the concentration of silver pre-
cursor, pH of the solution, the molar ratio between PVP (the
capping agent) and AgNO3 (silver precursor) (PVP:Ag+
ratio), the strength of chemical interaction between PVP and
various crystallographic planes of silver (Wiley et al., 2005b),
reducing agents (citric acid, L-ascorbic acid, and NaBH4), the
used method (chemical, physical or biological). Studies have
shown that by using seed particles with a particular morphol-
ogy (e.g., multifaceted or twinned), the final architecture of
anisotropic nanoparticles can be controlled in some synthetic
approaches (Liu and Guyot-Sionnest, 2005; Jiang et al.,
2011). Also, by modulating the chemical and redox environ-
ment of the initial seed particle in situ, the shape of the pro-
duced nanoparticles can be changed. A change in seed
Figure 13 TEM images of the produced silver NPs at various current densities of (a) 0.75 mA cm2, (b) 1.25 mA cm2, and (c)
2 mA cm2 when C, t and R were 3.0 · 103 mol L1, 10 min and 50, respectively (Tang et al., 2009).
Figure 14 TEM images of the products prepared at different PVP to Ag ratios R: (a) 10, (b) 80, and (c) 100 (Tang et al., 2009).
B. Khodashenas, H.R. Ghorbani
concentration (Wiley et al., 2005a; Wu et al., 2008), surfactant
(Sau and Murphy, 2004), pH (Xue and Mirkin, 2007), temper-
ature (Sun et al., 2003a; Jiang et al., 2011), metal ion (Métraux
and Mirkin, 2005), and even dopant concentrations (Millstone
et al., 2008) can have drastic effects on the shape and size of
the anisotropic product. Shervani et al. (2008) showed that
by adjusting the capping and reducing agents Ag(0) colloids
with various shapes can be prepared. PVP and PVE as capping
agents also played an important role in the formation of differ-
ent shaped Ag(0) nanomaterials like: pure cubes, stars, and
mixed geometry. Spherical particles were prepared by reduc-
tion of aqueous starch solution of AgNO3 precursor salt by
D(+)-glucose and NaOH (Shervani et al., 2008). Taguchi
et al. (2008) in their study found that the shape of silver nano-
particles during the polyol reduction of silver ions can be con-
trolled by adjusting the flow rate of the oxygen gas. They
proved that by adjusting this parameter different shapes of sil-
ver nanoparticles include: nanocubes, right bipyramids, nano-
wires, and spherical nanoparticles can be obtained.
Tang et al., in their experiment investigated the shape-con-
trolled synthesis of silver NPs using a simple PVP-assisted
sonoelectrochemical technique. It has been proved that the
shape of the produced silver NPs depends on the current den-
sity (J) and the molar ratio (R) of PVP monomer to Ag+.
Fig. 13 shows the effect of density on the morphology of silver
NPs. In this experiment the current density varied from
0.75 mA cm2 to 1.25 mA cm2 and 2 mA cm2, while C, t
(reaction time) and R (molar ratio) in all of the prepared sam-
ples were the same. As it can be seen by increasing the current
density the shape of NPs has changed from irregular agglom-
erates (Fig. 13(a)) to flower-like (Fig. 13(c)) (Tang et al., 2009).
Effect of the PVP as another influential factor is shown in
Fig. 14. Tang et al., for studying this effect, prepared samples
Synthesis of silver nanoparticles with different shapes 1833

with differing R while other parameters remained. They dem-
onstrated that, PVP leads the formation of side branches and
leaves and promotes the formation of finer, more hierarchical
microstructures (Tang et al., 2009).
Fig. 15 shows samples synthesized at a low
J = 0.5 mA cm2 and various PVP concentrations.
Fig. 15(a) shows spherical silver NPs with a narrow size distri-
bution (7–10 nm) at R = 100. Fig. 15(b) shows spherical silver
NPs with diameter of 15 nm which prepared at R = 50.
These NPs have multiple domains, as shown in the HRTEM
image of a typical particle (Fig. 15(c)). Fig. 15(d) shows
TEM image of synthesized NPs with little PVP (R = 5). The
size distribution of nanoparticles is shown in Fig. 15(e)
(Tang et al., 2009).
Rivero et al., studied the effect of poly(acrylic acid, sodium
salt) (PAA) and dimethylaminoborane (DMAB) as the protec-
tive and reducing agents respectively. Their results showed that
by means of a fine control of the PAA and DMAB molar con-
centrations, silver nanoparticles of different colors, sizes and
shapes (like: cubic, rod, triangle, hexagonal and spherical)
can be synthesized (Rivero et al., 2013).
Various studies have shown that, the morphology of crys-
tals depends on the distance of the formation conditions from
thermodynamic equilibrium (Tang et al., 2009; Meng et al.,
2010). It has been shown that increasing the driving force for
crystallization leads the formation of polyhedrons NSs such
as octahedrons, truncated octahedrons, cubes and pyramids
(Tang et al., 2009; Meng et al., 2010) (see Fig. 16).
Dong et al., investigated the growth of silver nanoparticles
by the citrate reduction of silver nitrate under the range of pH
from 5.7 to 11.1. They showed that pH of the reaction solution
affects the size/shape of the produced silver nanoparticles. It
was observed that under high pH, the product was composed
of both spherical and rod-like silver nanoparticles as a result of
the fast reduction rate of the precursor while, under low pH,
the main product was triangle or polygon silver nanoparticles
due to the slow reduction rate of the precursor (Dong et al.,
2009).

Figure 15 TEM image of Ag NPs at (a) R = 100, (b) R = 50 and (d) R = 5 when C, J, t remained at 3 · 103 mol L1, 0.5 mA cm2
and 10 min, respectively. The inset in (a) is a typical HRTEM image of an individual Ag particle. (c) HRTEM image of an Ag nanoparticle
in (b). (e) A high-magnification TEM image of the Ag particle in (d) (Tang et al., 2009).

Figure 16 Correlation between the distance of the formation conditions from the equilibrium and the shape of the produced Silver NPs
(Tang et al., 2009).
 1834
Table 1 Synthesis of Ag nanoparticles with different shapes through chemical, physical and biological methods.
Method Reducing agent or solvent Stabilizer or surfactant Particle size Shape Ref.
Chemical method Trisodium citrate Trisodium citrate 30–60 nm Spherical Rivas and Garc (2001)
Chemical method NaBH4 Dodecanoic acid (DDA) 7 nm Spherical Lee et al. (2006)
Chemical method Ethylene glycol PVP 17 ± 2 nm Spherical Kim et al. (2006)
Chemical method Paraffin Oleylamine 10–14 nm Spherical Sato-Berŕu et al. (2009)
Chemical reduction Hydrazine hydrate Bis(2-ethylhexyl) (sulfosuccinate AOT) 2–5 nm Spherical Zhang et al. (2007)
Photo chemical reduction X-ray – 28 nm Spherical Remita et al. (2007)
(X-ray radiolysis)
Electrochemical Electrolysis cathode: Polyvinyl pyrrolidone (PVP) 11 Spherical Lim et al. (2006)
(polyol process) titanium anode: Pt
Physical synthesis Electrical arc discharge Sodium citrate 14–27 nm Spherical Ashkarran (2010)
Physical synthesis TX-100, UV TX-100 30 nm Spherical Ghosh et al. (2003)
Biological synthesis Bacillus sp. Bacillus sp. 5–15 nm Spherical Pugazhenthiran et al. (2009)
Biological synthesis Lactobacillus Lactobacillus Proteins 6–15.7 nm Spherical Sintubin et al. (2009)
Biological synthesis Shewanella oneidensis Shewanella oneidensis 2–11 nm Spherical Suresh et al. (2010)
Biological synthesis Fungus T. viride Trichoderma viride 5–40 nm Spherical Fayaz et al. (2010)
Biological synthesis Cassia angustifolia Cassia angustifolia 9–31 nm Spherical Amaladhas et al. (2012)
Biological synthesis Daucus carota Daucus carota 20 nm Spherical Umadevi et al. (2012)
Biological synthesis Bacillus strain CS 11 Bacillus strain CS 11 42–92 nm Spherical Das et al. (2013)
Biological synthesis Aspergillus niger Aspergillus niger 1–20 nm Spherical Sagar and Ashok (2012)
Biological synthesis Arbutus unedo leaf extract Arbutus unedo leaf extract 3–20 nm Spherical Kouvaris et al. (2012)
Chemical method Ethylene glycol PVP – Cubic Sun and Xia (2002a)
Chemical method Pentanediol (H-1.5 PDO) PVP – Cubic Tao et al. (2006)
Chemical method Ethylene glycol PVP 30–50 nm Cubic Young et al. (2007)
Photochemical Carboxymethylated Carboxymethylated 2–8 nm Cubic Huang et al. (2008)
chitosan (CMCTS) chitosan (CMCTS)
Biological synthesis Leaf extracts from Leaf extracts from 10–50 nm (mean Cubic Poinern et al. (2013)
Eucalyptus macrocarpa Eucalyptus macrocarpa crystallite size = 38 ± 2 nm)
Wet-chemical Sodium borohydride in the – 4 ± 2 nm Nanorods Aslan et al. (2005)
presence of sodium citrate
Chemical method Potassium tartaric PVP – Nanorods Gu et al. (2006)

B. Khodashenas, H.R. Ghorbani

Chemical method (soft, solution-phase) Ethylene glycol – Diameters of 30–40 nm Nanowires Sun et al. (2002a)
Wet chemical Ascorbic acid – In diameter 30–40 nm Nanowires Zhang et al. (2004a)
Microwave technique Ethylene glycol PVP – Nanowires Nghia et al. (2012)
Chemical method (polyol) Ethylene glycol PVP – Nanobars Wiley et al. (2007)
Chemical reduction Hydrazine hydrate PVP 50–200 nm Triangular Kai et al. (2012)
Microwave-assisted Ethylene glycol monoalkyl ethers PVP – Nanoprisms Darmanin et al. (2012)
Synthesis of silver nanoparticles with different shapes
3. Conclusion
This article aimed to investigate the possible methods for the
synthesis of silver nanoparticles with specific shapes. This will
facilitate the selection of appropriate methods for the synthesis
of silver nanoparticles with specific shapes for the applications
in various fields. Generally, the growth of nanoparticles during
the solution synthesis consists of three steps: (1) nucleation, (2)
seeding, and (3) growth. By changing the thermodynamics and
kinetics at each stage of the solution synthesis, we can control
the shape of synthesized nanoparticles (Xia et al., 2009; S.
Chang et al., 2011).
As noted, applying chemical methods in which, chemical
reducing agents such as ethylene glycol and pentanediol (H-
1.5 PDO) were used (Young et al., 2007; Wiley et al., 2006;
Tao et al., 2006; Sun et al., 2002a), or photochemical methods
(Huang et al., 2008) and also biological methods in which the
leaf extract of Eucalyptus macrocarpa (Poinern et al., 2013)
was used as a reducing agent, cubic silver nanoparticles with
different sizes can be synthesized. In addition to different
methods for the synthesis of silver nanorods, which were
mentioned in this article, there are other methods like wet
chemical method (Aslan et al., 2005) leading to the produc-
tion of silver nanoparticles with 4 ± 2 nm and also simple
chemical deposition method in which Ag+ ions in PAM
nano-channels are reduced by acetaldehyde with the help of
porous aluminum membrane (PAM), and finally, leads to
the formation of nanorods (Xu et al., 2010). Among different
shapes of silver nanoparticles, nanowires have received much
attention due to their special characteristics. Different meth-
ods including wet chemical method (Zhang et al., 2004a),
microwave (Nghia et al., 2012) and soft solution-phase were
expressed for the synthesis of silver nanowires. Synthesis of
nanobars by Wiley et al. was performed using polyol chemi-
cal method (Wiley et al., 2007). Some researchers (Yamamoto
et al., 2004; Wiley et al., 2006; Kelly et al., 2012) have used
various chemical methods in order to synthesize triangular sil-
ver nanoparticles. Silver nanoprisms were synthesized by
Darmanin et al. using the modified polyol (microwave-
assisted process) method (Darmanin et al., 2012). Spherical
silver nanoparticles can be synthesized using chemical (Kai
et al., 2012; Liang et al., 2010), physical (Ashkarran, 2010;
Ghosh et al., 2003) or biological (Suresh et al., 2010;
Sintubin et al., 2009; Pugazhenthiran et al., 2009) methods.
As it can be seen in Table 1 for the synthesis of spherical
and cubic silver nanoparticles regarding the size range, either
physical, chemical or biological methods can be used, but for
synthesis of other shapes (nanorods, nanowires, and nanobars)
due to the underdevelopment of biological methods, using
either chemical or physical methods is inevitable. Although
chemical and physical approaches have the high ability to
shape-controlled synthesis of nanoparticles, they have some
disadvantages using toxic chemicals in the synthesis process
and the biological hazards are the main disadvantages of
chemical methods and the high cost of equipment to prepare
the nanoparticles and also consuming a lot of energy can be
mentioned for physical methods. Since the biological methods
are cheaper, environmentally friendly, and easy to use, further
studies in order to shape-controlled synthesis of silver nano-
particles using biological methods are needed.
1835
Acknowledgments
Authors have no competing Acknowledgements.
References
Abid, J.P., Wark, A.W., Brevet, P.F., Girault, H.H., 2002. Prepara-
tion of silver nanoparticles in solution from a silver salt by laser
irradiation. Chem. Commun. 7 (7), 792–793.
Aguilare, M.A.M., Martin, E.S.M., Arroyo, L.O., Portillo, G.C.,
Espindola, E.S.J., 2011. Synthesis and characterization of silver
nanoparticles: effect on phytopathogen Colletotrichum gloesporio-
ides. Nanopart. Res. 13 (6), 2525–2532. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/
s11051-010-0145-6.
Aherne, D., Ledwith, D.M., Gara, M., Kelly, J.M., 2008. Optical
properties and growth aspects of silver nanoprisms produced by a
highly reproducible and rapid synthesis at room temperature. Adv.
Funct. Mater. 18 (14), 2005–2016. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/
adfm.200800233.
Ahmad, A., Mukherjee, P., Senapati, S., Mandal, D., Islam Khan,
M., Kumar, R., Sastry, M., 2003. Extracellular biosynthesis of
silver nanoparticles using the fungus Fusarium oxysporum. Colloids
Surf., B 28, 313–318.
AL-Thabaiti, S.A., Malik, M.A., Al-Youbi, A.A.O., Khan, Z.,
Hussain, J.I., 2013. Effects of surfactant and polymer on the
morphology of advanced nanomaterials in aqueous solution. Int. J.
Electrochem. Sci. 8, 204–218.
Amaladhas, T.P., Sivagami, S., Devi, T.A., Ananthi, N., Velammal,
S.P., 2012. Biogenic synthesis of silver nanoparticles by leaf extract
of Cassia angustifolia. Adv. Nat. Sci.: Nanosci. Nanotechnol. 3,
045006. http://dx.doi.org/10.1088/2043-6262/3/4/045006.
Ashkarran, A.A., 2010. A novel method for synthesis of colloidal
silver nanoparticles by arc discharge in liquid. Curr. Appl. Phys. 10,
1442–1447.
Aslan, K., Leonenko, Z., Lakowicz, J.R., Geddes, C.D., 2005. Fast
and slow deposition of silver nanorods on planar surfaces:
application to metal-enhanced fluorescence. J. Phys. Chem. B 109
(8), 3157–3162.
Bastys, V., Pastoriza-Santos, I., Rodrı́guez-González, B., Vaisnoras,
R., Liz-Marzán, L.M., 2006. Formation of silver nanoprisms with
surface plasmons at communication wavelengths. Adv. Funct.
Mater. 16, 766–773.
Bhatt, J.S.A., 2003. Heralding a new future – Nanotechnology. Curr.
Sci. 85 (2), 147–154.
Bhattacharyya, S., Saha, S.K., Chakravorty, D., 2000. Silver nano-
wires grown in the pores of a silica gel. Appl. Phys. Lett. 77, 3770.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.1327278.
Bohr, M.T., 2002. Nanotechnology goals and challenges for elec-
tronic applications. Nanotechnol. IEEE Trans. 1, 56–62.
Cai, X., Zhai, A., 2010. Preparation of microsized silver crystals with
different morphologies by a wet-chemical method. Rare Met. 29
(4), 407. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s12598-010-0139-7.
Cao, G., 2004. Nanostructures & Nanomaterials: Synthesis, Proper-
ties & Applications. World scientific publishing Co. Pte. Ltd.,
Imperial College Press, London.
Chang, Y., Lu, Y., Chou, K., 2011a. Diameter control of silver
nanowires by chloride ions and its application as transparent
conductive coating. Chem. Lett. 40, 1352–1353.
Chang, S., Chen, K., Hua, Q., Ma, Y., Huang, W., 2011b. Evidence
for the growth mechanisms of silver nanocubes and nanowires. J.
Phys. Chem. C 115, 7979–7986.
Chen, H.M., Liu, R.S., 2011. Architecture of metallic nanostructures:
synthesis strategy and specific applications. J. Phys. Chem. C 115,
3513–3527.
Chen, D., Qiao, X., Qiu, X., Chen, J., Jiang, R., 2010. Convenient,
rapid synthesis of silver nanocubes and nanowires via a microwave-
1836
assisted polyol method. Nanotechnology 21 (2), 025607. http://
dx.doi.org/10.1088/0957-4484/21/2/025607.
Chimentao, R., Kirm, I., Medina, F., Rodriguez, X., Cesteros, Y.,
Salagre, P., Sueiras, J., 2004. Different morphologies of silver
nanoparticles as catalysts for the selective oxidation of styrene in
the gas phase. Chem. Commun. 4, 846–847.
Cong, F., Wei1, H., Tian, X., Xu, H., 2012. A facile synthesis of
branched silver nanowire structures and its applications in surface-
enhanced Raman scattering. Front. Phys. 7 (5), 521–526.
Darmanin, T., Nativo, P., Gilliland, D., Ceccone, G., Pascual, C.,
Berardis, B.D., Guittard, F., Rossi, F., 2012. Microwave-assisted
synthesis of silver nanoprisms/nanoplates using a ‘‘modified polyol
process’’. Colloids Surf., A 395, 145–151.
Das, V.L., Thomas, R., Varghese, R.T., Soniya, E.V., Mathew, J.,
Radhakrishnan, E.K., 2014. Extracellular synthesis of silver
nanoparticles by the Bacillus strain CS 11 isolated from industri-
alized area. 3 Biotech. 4, 121–126. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/
s13205-013-0130-8.
Dong, X., Ji, X., Wu, H., Zhao, L., Li, J., Yang, W., 2009. Shape
control of silver nanoparticles by stepwise citrate reduction. J.
Phys. Chem. C 113, 6573–6576.
Dong, X., Ji, X., Jing, J., Li, M., Li, J., Yang, W., 2010. Synthesis of
triangular silver nanoprisms by stepwise reduction of sodium boro-
hydride and trisodium citrate. J. Phys. Chem. C 114 (5), 2070–2074.
El-Kheshen, A.A., El-Rab, S.F.G., 2012. Effect of reducing and
protecting agents on size of silver nanoparticles and their anti-
bacterial activity. Pharm. Chem. 4 (1), 53–65.
Fayaz, A.M., Balaji, K., Girilal, M., Yadav, R., Kalaichelvan, P.T.,
Venketesan, R., 2010. Biogenic synthesis of silver nanoparticles and
their synergistic effect with antibiotics: a study against gram-
positive and gram-negative bacteria. Nanomedicine 6, 103–109.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.nano.2009.04.006.
Fu, H., Yang, X., Jiang, X., Yu, A., 2013. Bimetallic Ag–Au
nanowires: synthesis, growth mechanism, and catalytic properties.
Langmuir 29 (23), 7134–7142.
Ghorbani, H.R., Safekordi, A.A., Attar, H., Rezayat Sorkhabadi,
S.M., 2011. Biological and non-biological methods for silver
nanoparticles synthesis. Chem. Biochem. Eng. Q. 25 (3), 317–326.
Ghosh, S.K., Kundu, S., Mandal, M., Nath, S., Pal, T., 2003. Studies
on the evolution of silver nanoparticles in micelle by UV-photo-
activation. J. Nanopart. Res. 5 (5-6), 577–583.
Giri, N., Natarajan, R.K., Gunasekaran, S., Shreemathi, S., 2011.
NMR and FTIR spectroscopic study of blend behavior of PVP and
nano silver particles. Arch. Appl. Sci. Res. 3 (5), 624–630.
Gu, X., Nie, C., Lai, Y., Lin, C., 2006. Synthesis of silver nanorods
and nanowires by tartrate-reduced route in aqueous solutions.
Mater. Chem. Phys. 96, 217–222.
Gurunathan, S., Kalishwaralal, K.V., aidyanathan, R., Deepak, V.,
Pandian, S., Muniyandi, J., 2009. Purification and characterization
of silver nanoparticles using Escherichia coli. Colloids Surf., B 74,
328–335.
Haruta, M., 2004. Nanoparticulate gold catalysts for low-
temperature CO oxidation. J. New Mater. Electrochem. Syst. 7,
163–172.
He, B., Tan, J., Liew, K., Liu, H., 2004. Synthesis of size controlled
Ag nanoparticles. J. Mol. Catal. Chem. 221, 121–126.
Henglein, A., 1989. Small-particle research: physicochemical proper-
ties of extremely small colloidal metal and semiconductor particles.
Chem. Rev. 89, 1861–1873.
Hill, W.R., 1939. Pillsbury, DM: Argyria: The Pharmacology of
Silver, Baltimore. Md. Williams & Wilkins Co, pp. 128–132.
Hsieh, C.T., Tzou, D.Y., Pan, C., Chen, W.Y., 2012. Microwave-
assisted deposition, scalable coating, and wetting behavior of silver
nanowire layers. Surf. Coat. Technol. 207, 11–18.
Hu, J.Q., Chen, Q., Xie, Z.X., Han, G.B., Wang, R.H., Ren, B.,
Zhang, Y., Yang, Z.L., Tian, Z.Q., 2004. A simple and effective
route for the synthesis of crystalline silver nanorods and nanowires.
Adv. Funct. Mater. 14 (2), 183–189.
B. Khodashenas, H.R. Ghorbani
Hu, Z.S., Hung, F.Y., Chang, S.J., Hsieh, W.K., Chen, K.J., 2012.
Align Ag nanorods via oxidation reduction growth using RF-
sputtering. J. Nanomater. http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2012/345086.
Article ID 345086, 6 pages. Hindawi Publishing Corporation.
Huang, L., Zhai, M.L., Long, D.W., Peng, J., Xu, L., Wu, G.Z., Li,
J.Q., Wei, G.S., 2008. UV-induced synthesis, characterization and
formation mechanism of silver nanoparticles in alkalic carboxyme-
thylated chitosan solution. J. Nanopart. Res. 10, 1193–1202.
Hussain, S., Pal, A.K., 2008. Incorporation of nanocrystalline silver
on carbon nanotubes by electrodeposition technique. Mater. Lett.
62, 1874–1877.
Im, S.H., Lee, Y.T., Wiley, B., Xia, Y., 2005. Large-scale synthesis of
silver nanocubes: the role of HCl in promoting cube perfection and
monodispersity. Angew. Chem., Int. Ed. 44, 2154–2157. http://
dx.doi.org/10.1002/anie.200462208.
James, E.M., 1999. Practical aspects of atomic resolution imaging
and analysis in STEM. Ultramicroscopy 78, 125–139.
Jana, N.R., Gearheart, L., Murphy, C.J., 2001. Wet chemical
synthesis of silver nanorods and nanowires of controllable aspect
ratio. Chem. Commun. 7, 617–818.
Jiang, P., Li, S., Xie, S., Gao, Y., Song, L., 2004. Machinable long
PVP-stabilized silver nanowires. Chem. Eur. J. 10, 4817–4821.
Jiang, X.C., Chen, W.M., Chen, C.Y., Xiong, S.X., Yu, A.B., 2011.
Role of temperature in the growth of silver nanoparticles through a
synergetic reduction approach. Nanoscale Res. Lett. 6, 32.
Jin, R., Cao, Y., Mirkin, C.A., Kelly, K.L., Schatz, G.C., Zheng,
J.G., 2001. Photoinduced conversion of silver nanospheres to
nanoprisms. Science 294 (5548), 1901–1903.
Jung, W.K., Koo, H.C., Kim, K.W., Shin, S., Kim, S.H., Park, Y.H.,
2008. Antibacterial activity and mechanism of action of the silver ion
in Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli. Appl. Environ.
Microbiol. 24, 2171–2178. http://dx.doi.org/10.1128/AEM.02001-07.
Kelly, J.M., Keegan, G., Brennan-Fournet, M.E., 2012. Triangular
silver nanoparticles: their preparation functionalisation and prop-
erties. Acta Phys. Pol. A 122 (2), 337–348.
Kim, F., Song, J.H., Yang, P., 2002. Photochemical synthesis of gold
nanorods. J. Am. Chem. 124 (48), 14316–14317.
Kim, D., Jeong, S., Moon, J., 2006. Synthesis of silver nanoparticles
using the polyol process and the influence of precursor injection.
Nanotechnology 17, 4019–4024.
Korte, K.E., Skrabalak, S.E., Xia, Y., 2008. Rapid synthesis of silver
nanowires through a CuCl or CuCl 2 mediated polyol process. J.
Mater. Chem. 18 (4), 437–441.
Kou, J., Varma, R.S., 2013. Speedy fabrication of diameter-
controlled Ag nanowires using glycerol under microwave irradia-
tion conditions. Chem. Commun. (Camb.) 49 (7), 692–694. http://
dx.doi.org/10.1039/c2cc37696b.
Kouvaris, P., Delimitis, A., Zaspalis, V., Papadopoulos, D., Tsipas,
S., Michailidis, N., 2012. Green synthesis and characterization of
silver nanoparticles produced using Arbutus unedo leaf extract.
Mater. Lett. 76, 18–20.
Krutyakov, Y.A., Kudrinskiy, A.A., Olenin, A.Yu., Lisichkin, G.V.,
2008. Synthesis and properties of silver nanoparticles: advances and
prospects. Russ. Chem. Rev. 77 (3), 233–257.
Lee, K.J., Jun, B.H., Kim, T.H., Joung, J., 2006. Direct synthesis and
inkjetting of silver nanocrystals toward printed electronics. Nano-
technology 17, 2424–2428.
Li, K., Jia, X., Tang, A., Zhu, X., Meng, H., Wang, Y., 2012.
Preparation of spherical and triangular silver nanoparticles by a
convenient method. Integr. Ferroelectr. 136, 9–14. http://
dx.doi.org/10.1080/10584587.2012.686405.
Liang, H., Wang, W., Huang, Y., Zhang, S., Wei, H., Xu, H., 2010.
Controlled synthesis of uniform silver nanospheres. J. Phys. Chem.
C 114, 7427–7431.
Lim, P.Y., Liu, R.S., She, P.L., Hung, C.F., Shih, H.C., 2006.
Synthesis of Ag nanospheres particles in ethylene glycol by
electrochemical-assisted polyol process. Chem. Phys. Lett. 420,
304–308. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cplett.2005.12.075.
Synthesis of silver nanoparticles with different shapes
Liu, M., Guyot-Sionnest, P., 2005. Mechanism of silver(I)-assisted
growth of gold nanorods and bipyramids. J. Phys. Chem. B 109,
22192–22200.
Liu, S., Yue, J., Gedanken, A., 2001. Synthesis of long silver
nanowires from AgBr nanocrystals. Adv. Mater. 13 (9), 656–658.
Liu, Q., Yin, G., Han, M., Liu, H., Zhu, J., Liang, Y., Xu, Z., 2006.
Large-scale synthesis of single crystal silver nanowires by a sodium
diphenylamine sulfonate reduction process. J. Nanosci. Nanotech-
nol. 6 (1), 231–234.
Lue, J.T., 2001. A review characterization and physical property
studies of metallic nanoparticles. Phys. Chem. Solids 62, 1599–
1612.
Martin, C.R., 1994. Nanomaterials: a membrane-based synthetic
approach. Science 266 (5193), 1961–1966.
Meng, X.K., Tang, S.C., Vongehr, S., 2010. A review on diverse silver
nanostructures. J. Mater. Sci. Technol. 26 (6), 487–522.
Métraux, G.S., Mirkin, C.A., 2005. Rapid thermal synthesis of silver
nanoprisms with chemically tailorable thickness. Adv. Mater. 17
(4), 412–415. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/adma.200401086.
Millstone, J.E., Wei, W., Jones, M.R., Yoo, H., Mirkin, C.A., 2008.
Iodide ions control seed-mediated growth of anisotropic gold
nanoparticles. Nano Lett. 8 (8), 2526–2529.
Millstone, J.E., Hurst, S.J., Métraux, G.S., Cutler, J.I., Mirkin, C.A.,
2009. Colloidal gold and silver triangular nanoprisms. Small 5 (6),
646–664.
Moghimi-Rad, J., Dallali Isfahani, T., Hadi, I., Ghalamdaran, S.,
Sabbaghzadeh, J., Sharif, M., 2011. Shape-controlled synthesis of
silver particles by surfactant self-assembly under ultrasound
radiation. Appl. Nanosci. 1, 27–35.
Murphy, C.J., Jana, N.R., 2002. Controlling the aspect ratio of
inorganic nanorods and nanowires. Adv. Mater. 14 (1), 80–82.
Nghia, N., Truong, N.N.K., Thong, N.M., Hung, N.P., 2012.
Synthesis of nanowire-shaped silver by polyol process of sodium
chloride. Int. J. Mater. Chem. 2 (2), 75–78.
Orendoff, C.J., Gearheart, L., Jana, N.R., Murphy, C.J., 2006.
Aspect ratio dependence on surface enhanced Raman scattering
using silver and gold nanorod substrates. Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys.
8, 165–170. http://dx.doi.org/10.1039/B512573A.
Parveen, S., Misra, R., Sahoo, S.K., 2012. Nanoparticles: a boom to
drug delivery, therapeutics, diagnostics and imaging. Nanomedi-
cine 8 (2), 147–166. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.nano.2011.05.016.
Pérez-Juste, J., Pastoriza-Santos, I., Liz-Marzán, L.M., Mulvaney, P.,
2005. Gold nanorods: synthesis, characterization and applications.
Coord. Chem. Rev. 249, 1870–1901.
Poinern, G.E.J., Chapman, P., Shah, M., Fawcett, D., 2013. Green
biosynthesis of silver nanocubes using the leaf extracts from
Eucalyptus macrocarpa. Nano Bull. 2 (1), 1–7.
Portney, N.G., Ozkan, M., 2006. Nano-oncology: drug delivery,
imaging, and sensing. Anal. Bioanal. Chem. 384, 620–630.
Pourjavadi, A., Soleyman, R., 2011. Novel silver nano-wedges for
killing microorganisms. Mater. Res. Bull. 46, 1860–1865.
Pugazhenthiran, N., Anandan, S., Kathiravan, G., Udaya Prakash,
N.K., Crawford, S., Ashokkumar, M., 2009. Microbial synthesis of
silver nanoparticles by Bacillus sp. J. Nanopart. Res. 11, 1811–
1815.
Pyatenko, A., Yamaguchi, M., Suzuki, M., 2007. Synthesis of
spherical silver nanoparticles with controllable sizes in aqueous
solutions. J. Phys. Chem. C 111, 7910–7917.
Qin, Y., Ji, X., Jing, J., Liu, H., Wu, H., Yang, W., 2010. Size control
over spherical silver nanoparticles by ascorbic acid reduction.
Colloids Surf., A 372, 172–176.
Rai, M., Yadav, A., Gade, A., 2009. Silver nanoparticles as a new
generation of antimicrobials. Biotechnol. Adv. 27, 76–83.
Remita, S., Fontaine, P., Lacaze, E., Borensztein, Y., Sellame, H.,
Farha, R., Rochas, C., Goldmann, M., 2007. X-ray radiolysis
induced formation of silver nano-particles: a SAXS and UV–visible
absorption spectroscopy study. Nucl. Instrum. Methods B 263,
436–440.
1837
Rivas, L., Garc, J.V., 2001. Enhancement increase of surface-
enhanced Raman scattering by nucleation of citrate-silver particles.
Langmuir 17, 574–577.
Rivero, P.J., Goicoechea, J., Urrutia, A., Arregui, F.J., 2013. Effect
of both protective and reducing agents in the synthesis of
multicolor silver nanoparticles. Nanoscale Res. Lett. 8 (1), 101.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1556-276X-8-101.
Rycenga, M., McLellan, J.M., Xia, Y., 2008. Controlling the
assembly of silver nanocubes through selective functionalization
of their faces. Adv. Mater. 20, 2416–2420. http://dx.doi.org/
10.1002/adma.200800360.
Sagar, G., Ashok, B., 2012. Green synthesis of silver nanoparticles
using Aspergillus niger and its efficacy against human pathogens.
Eur. J. Exp. Biol. 2 (5), 1654–1658.
Sanjeeb, K.S., Vinod, L., 2003. Nanotech approaches to drug delivery
and imaging. Drug Discov. Today 8, 1112–1120.
Sato-Berŕu, R., Redón, R., Vázquez-Olmos, A., Saniger, J.M., 2009.
Silver nanoparticles synthesized by direct photoreduction of metal
salts. Application in surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy. J.
Raman Spectrosc. 40 (4), 376–380. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/
jrs.2135.
Sau, T.K., Murphy, C.J., 2004. Room temperature, high-yield
synthesis of multiple shapes of gold nanoparticles in aqueous
solution. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 126, 8648–8649.
Shameli, K., Bin Ahmad, M., Jaffar Al-Mulla, E.A., Ibrahim, N.A.,
Shabanzadeh, P., Rustaiyan, A., Abdollahi, Y., Bagheri, S.,
Abdolmohammadi, S., Usman, M.S., Zidan, M., 2012. Green
biosynthesis of silver nanoparticles using Callicarpa maingayi stem
bark extraction. Molecules 17, 8506–8517. http://dx.doi.org/
10.3390/molecules17078506.
Shervani, Z., Ikushima, Y., Sato, M., Kawanami, H., Hakuta, Y.,
Yokoyama, T., Nagase, T., Kuneida, H., Aramaki, K., 2008.
Morphology and size-controlled synthesis of silver nanoparticles in
aqueous surfactant polymer solutions. Colloid Polym. Sci. 286,
403–410. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00396-007-1784-8.
Siekkinen, A.R., McLellan, J.M., Chen, J., Xia, Y., 2006. Rapid
synthesis of small silver nanocubes by mediating polyol reduction
with a trace amount of sodium sulfide or sodium hydrosulfide.
Chem. Phys. Lett. 432, 491–496.
Sintubin, L., De Windt, W., Dick, J., Mast, J., van der Ha, D.,
Verstraete, W., Boon, N., 2009. Lactic acid bacteria as reducing
and capping agent for the fast and efficient production of silver
nanoparticles. Appl. Microbiol. Biotechnol. 84 (4), 741–749.
Skrabalak, S., Au, L., Li, X., Xia, Y., 2007. Facile synthesis of Ag
nanocubes and Au nanocages. Nat. Protoc. 2, 2182–2190.
Sun, Y., Xia, Y., 2002a. Shape-controlled synthesis of gold and silver
nanoparticles. Science 298 (5601), 2176–2179.
Sun, Y., Xia, Y.N., 2002b. Large-scale synthesis of uniform silver
nanowires through a soft, self-seeding, polyol process. Adv. Mater.
14, 833–837.
Sun, Y., Yin, Y., Mayers, B., Herricks, T., Xia, Y., 2002a. Uniform
silver nanowires synthesis by reducing AgNO3 with ethylene glycol
in the presence of seeds and poly(vinyl pyrrolidone). Chem. Mater.
14, 4736–4745.
Sun, Y., Gates, B., Mayers, B., Xia, Y.N., 2002b. Crystalline silver
nanowires by soft solution processing. Nano Lett. 2, 165–168.
Sun, Y., Mayers, B., Xia, Y., 2003a. Transformation of silver
nanospheres into nanobelts and triangular nanoplates through a
thermal process. Nano Lett. 3 (5), 675–679.
Sun, Y., Mayers, B., Herricks, T., Xia, Y.N., 2003b. Polyol synthesis
of uniform silver nanowires: a plausible growth mechanism and the
supporting evidence. Nano Lett. 3, 955–960.
Sun, B., Jiang, X., Dai, S., Du, Z., 2009. Single-crystal silver
nanowires: preparation and surface-enhanced Raman scattering
(SERS) property. Mater. Lett. 63, 2570–2573.
Suresh, A.K., Wang, W., Pelletier, D.A., Moon, J.W., Gu, B.,
Mortensen, N.P., Allison, D.P., Joy, D.C., Phelps, T.J., Doktycz,
M.J., 2010. Silver nanocrystallites: Facile biofabrication using
1838
Shewanella oneidensis, and an evaluation of their comparative
toxicity on gram-negative and gram-positive bacteria. Environ. Sci.
Technol. 44 (13), 5210–5215.
Taguchi, A., Fujii, S., Ichimura, T., Verma, P., Inouye, Y., Kawata,
S., 2008. Oxygen-assisted shape control in polyol synthesis of silver
nanocrystals. Chem. Phys. Lett. 462, 92–95.
Tang, X., Tsuji, M., 2010. Synthesis of silver nanowires in liquid
phase. In: Lupu, Nicoleta (Ed.), Nanowires Science and Technol-
ogy. InTech, 89, pp. 25–42. http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/39491. ISBN:
978-953-7619-89-3. <http://www.intechopen.com/books/nano-
wires-science-and-technology/syntheses-of-silver-nanowires-in-
liquid-phase>.
Tang, S.C., Meng, X.K., Lu, H.B., Zhu, S.P., 2009. PVP-assisted
sonoelectrochemical growth of silver nanostructures with various
shapes. Mater. Chem. Phys. 116, 464–468.
Taniguchi, N., 1974. On the basic concept of nanotechnology. In:
Proc. of International Conference on Precision Engineering
(ICPE), Tokyo, Japan, pp. 18–23.
Tao, A., Sinsermsuksakul, P., Yang, P.D., 2006. Polyhedral silver
nanocrystals with distinct scattering signatures. Angew. Chem., Int.
Ed. 45 (28), 4597–4601.
Thakkar, K.N., Mhatre, S.S., Parikh, R.Y., 2010. Biological synthesis
of metallic nanoparticles. Nanomed. NBM 6 (2), 257–262.
Tsuji, M., Matsumoto, K., Jiang, P., Matsuo, R., Hikino, S., Tang,
X.L., Nor Kamarudin, K.S., 2008. The role of adsorption species in
the formation of Ag nanostructures by a microwave-polyol route.
Bull. Chem. Soc. Jpn. 81, 393–400.
Tsuji, M., Gomi, S., Maeda, Y., Matsunaga, M., Hikino, S., Uto, K.,
Tsuji, T., Kawazumi, H., 2012. Rapid transformation from
spherical nanoparticles, nanorods, cubes, or bipyramids to trian-
gular prisms of silver with PVP, citrate, and H2O2. Langmuir 28,
8845–8861. http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/la3001027.
Umadevi, M., Shalini, S., Bindhu, M.R., 2012. Synthesis of silver
nanoparticle using D. carota extract. Adv. Nat. Sci: Nanosci.
Nanotechnol. 3 (2), 6. http://dx.doi.org/10.1088/2043-6262/3/2/
025008.
Wiley, B., Herricks, T., Sun, Y.G., Xia, Y.N., 2004. Polyol synthesis
of silver nanoparticles: use of chloride and oxygen to promote the
formation of single-crystal, truncated cubes and tetrahedrons.
Nano Lett. 4 (9), 1733–1739.
Wiley, B., Sun, Y., Chen, J., Cang, H., Li, Z.Y., Li, X., Xia, Y.,
2005a. Silver and gold nanostructures with well-controlled shapes.
MRS Bull. 30, 356–361.
Wiley, B., Sun, Y.G., Mayers, B., Xia, Y.N., 2005b. Shape-controlled
synthesis of metal nanostructures: the case of silver. Chem. – Eur. J.
11, 454–463.
Wiley, B., Sun, Y.G., Xia, Y.N., 2005c. Polyol synthesis of silver
nanostructures: control of product morphology with Fe(II) or
Fe(III) species. Langmuir 21 (8), 8077–8080.
Wiley, B., Im, S.H., Li, Z.Y., McLellan, J., Siekkinen, A., Xia, Y.,
2006. Maneuvering the surface plasmon resonance of silver
nanostructures through shape-controlled synthesis. J. Phys. Chem.
B 110, 15666–17675.
Wiley, B.J., Chen, Y., McLellan, J.M., Xiong, Y., Li, Z.Y., Ginger,
D., Xia, Y., 2007. Synthesis and optical properties of silver
nanobars and nanorice. Nano Lett. 7 (4), 1032–1036.
Wu, X., Redmond, P.L., Liu, H., Chen, Y., Steigerwald, M., Brus, L.,
2008. Photovoltage mechanism for room light conversion of citrate
stabilized silver nanocrystal seeds to large nanoprisms. J. Am.
Chem. Soc. 130 (29), 9500–9506.
B. Khodashenas, H.R. Ghorbani
Xia, Y., Xiong, Y., Lim, B., Skrabalak, S.E., 2009. Shape-controlled
synthesis of metal nanocrystals: simple chemistry meets complex
physics? Angew. Chem., Int. Ed. Engl. 48 (1), 60–103. http://
dx.doi.org/10.1002/anie.200802248.
Xu, R., Wang, D., Zhang, J., Li, Y., 2006. Shape-dependent catalytic
activity of silver nanoparticles for the oxidation of styrene. Chem.
Asian J. 1 (6), 888–893.
Xu, J., Cheng, G., Zheng, R., 2010. Controllable synthesis of highly
ordered Ag nanorod arrays by chemical deposition method. Appl.
Surf. Sci. 256, 5006–5010.
Xue, C., Mirkin, C.A., 2007. pH-switchable silver nanoprism growth
pathways. Angew. Chem., Int. Ed. 46 (12), 2036–2038.
Yamamoto, T., Yin, H., Wada, Y., Kitamura, T., Sakata, T., Mori,
H., Yanagida, S., 2004. Morphology-control in microwave-assisted
synthesis of silver particles in aqueous solutions. Bull. Chem. Soc.
Jpn. 77 (4), 757–761.
Yan, G., Wang, L., Zhang, L., 2010. Recent research progress on
preparation of silver nanowires by soft solution method, prepara-
tion of gold nanotubes and Pt nanotubes from resultant silver
nanowires and their applications in conductive adhesive. Rev. Adv.
Mater. Sci. 24, 10–25.
Yeo, S., Lee, H., Jeong, S., 2003. Antibacterial effect of nanosized
silver colloidal solution on textile fabrics. J. Mater. Sci. 38, 2143–
2147.
Young, K., Xia, Y., Lu, X., 2007. Synthesis and galvanic replacement
reaction of silver nanocubes in organic medium. J. Young Invest.
16 (4), web publication.
Zaheer, Z., Rafiuddin, 2011. Multi-branched flower-like silver nano-
particles: preparation and characterization. Colloids Surf. A 384,
427–431.
Zeng, J., Zheng, Y., Rycenga, M., Tao, J., Li, Z.Y., Zhang, Q., Zhu,
Y., Xia, Y., 2010. Controlling the shapes of silver nanocrystals with
different capping agents. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 132 (25), 8552–8553.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/ja103655f.
Zhang, D., Qi, L., Yang, J., Ma, J., Cheng, H., Huang, L., 2004a.
Wet chemical synthesis of silver nanowire thin films at ambient
temperature. Chem. Mater. 16, 872–876. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/
j.apcata.2004.01.025.
Zhang, J., Chen, P., Sun, C., Hu, X., 2004b. Sonochemical synthesis
of colloidal silver catalysts for reduction of complexing silver in
DTR system. Appl. Catal. A 266, 49–54.
Zhang, W., Qiao, X., Chen, J., Wang, H., 2006. Preparation of silver
nanoparticles in water-in-oil AOT reverse micelles. J. Colloid
Interface Sci. 302 (1), 370–373.
Zhang, W., Qiao, X., Chen, J., 2007. Synthesis of nanosilver colloidal
particles in water/oil microemulsion. Colloids Surf., A 299, 22–28.
Zhang, W., Chen, P., Gao, Q., Zhang, Y., Tang, Y., 2008. High-
concentration preparation of silver nanowires: restraining in situ
nitric acidic etching by steel-assisted polyol method. Chem. Mater.
20, 1699–1704.
Zhang, Q., Li, W., Wen, L.P., Chen, J., Xia, Y., 2010. Facile synthesis
of Ag nanocubes of 30 to 70 nm in edge length with CF3COOAg as
a precursor. Chem. – Eur. J. 16 (33), 10234–10239.
Zhu, J.J., Kan, C.X., Wan, J.G., Han, M., Wang, G.H., 2011. High-
yield synthesis of uniform ag nanowires with high aspect ratios by
introducing the long-chain PVP in an improved polyol process. J.
Nanomater. http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2011/982547. Article ID
982547, 7 pages.