Gelatin as an ecofriendly natural polymer for preparing colloidal silver@gold nanobranches

• Main Authors: Thi Phuong Phong Nguyen, Nguyen Dai Hai
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: De Gruyter 2016-10-01
• Series: Green Processing and Synthesis
• Subjects: gelatin; gold; silver; stabilizer; star-shaped
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.1515/gps-2016-0036

We report star-shaped silver@gold (Ag@Au) nanoparticles (NPs) in gelatin suspensions for the purpose of enhancing the stability of Ag@Au NPs. In this case, Ag NPs were designed as nucleating agents, whereas gelatin was used as a protecting agent for Au development. Especially, variable gelatin concentrations were also prepared to explore its ability to increase the stability of Ag@Au NPs. The obtained samples were then characterized by UV-visible spectroscopy, transmission electron spectroscopy (TEM), X-ray diffraction, and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. The maximum absorption wavelength of all samples (566–580 nm) indicated that branched Ag@Au@gelatin NPs were successfully synthesized. In addition, our TEM results revealed that the size of branched Ag@Au@gelatin NPs was found to be between 20 and 45 nm as influenced by the component ratio and the pH value. These results can provide valuable insights into the improvement of Ag@Au NP stability in the presence of gelatin.