Abstract
This paper reports the study on the synthesis and characterization of silver nanocrystals by a two-step synthesis procedure. The first step is the solution-free hand grinding of silver foil and sugar at room temperature for few minutes. The second step is the thermal decomposition of silver/sugar composite to form silver nanocrystals. The as-synthesized silver nanocrystals were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM), ultraviolet visible (UV/Vis) spectroscopy, atomic force microscopy (AFM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) studies. The XRD pattern showed a face-centered cubic structure (single phase) with high crystallinity. The lattice parameters calculated from XRD pattern were found to be a = 4.12 angstrom for silver nanocrystals with average grain size of similar to 19 nm. The energy dispersive analysis of X-rays (EDAX) of silver nanocrystals confirmed the presence of silver and no peak of any secondary phase was detected. FESEM and AFM studies showed that the crystals have cube-like morphology. TEM results showed that the size of silver nanocrystals was found to be similar to 22 nm. This novel synthesis route, not reported earlier, would be a promising candidate for a variety of future applications of silver nanocrystals.