Highly size and shape-controlled synthesis of silver nanoparticles via a templated tollens reaction

A mild, facile one-step synthetic strategy for the preparation of size and shape-controlleds silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) is presented. The AgNPs prepared by this strategy exhibit remarkable stability in high salt aqueous buffer systems up to 2.8 m NaCl for a period of at least 24 h. The high degree of size- and shape control of these AgNPs is achieved by the development of novel multifunctional triazole sugar ligands, which mediate the nucleation, growth, and passivation phases of AgNP preparation in the presence of the Tollens reagent as the silver source.