Mass-spectrometric study of the formation of silver nanoclusters in polyethers: I. Laser desorption/ionization

Within the framework of a problem of the synthesis of silver nanoparticles and Ag-n nanoclusters in polyethers, the systems containing silver nitrate AgNO3 and the low-molecular-weight polyethers poly(ethylene glycol) PEG-400 and oxyethylated glycerol OEG-5, in which silver ions were reduced, were studied by laser desorption/ionization mass spectrometry. The occurrence of Ag-n silver nanoclusters with n up to 35 in the systems was detected. For n > 2, the presence of "magic numbers" was observed; that is, positively charged Ag-n(+) clusters with predominantly odd values of n were detected. Negatively charged Ag-n clusters with n = 1-3 were also detected. It was shown that one of the expected processes, namely, the formation of the stable clusters of polyether oligomers (M-m ) with the silver cation M-m . Ag+, took place in the test systems.