A statistical design and analysis illustrating the interactions between key experimental factors for the synthesis of silver nanoparticles

The aim of this work was to obtain uniform and well-dispersed spherical silver nanoparticles using statistical design of experiments. For the purpose, we have performed the experiments based on the statistical design regarding some key factors involved in a general chemical reduction method. The nanoparticles prepared were characterized by SEM, TEM and UV-vis absorbance for particle size, distribution, aggregation and anisotropy. The data obtained were analyzed and optimized using a statistical software. The design of experiments using quantified data enabled us to understand effects of factors and interactions between them. The principal properties of produced nanoparticles were dominated by not only individual one or two main factors but also interactions between factors. The appropriate combination of the factors led to synthesis of small, narrow-distributed and non-aggregated silver nanoparticles of about 30 nm with approximately 10% standard deviation. (C) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.