Facile route to silver submicron-sized particles and their catalytic activity towards 4-nitrophenol reduction

A facile, efficient, and environmentally friendly synthetic route was developed to fabricate silver submicron-sized particles by reducing silver nitrate with EDTA in aqueous solution. X-ray diffraction (XRD), field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM), and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) analysis revealed the formation of silver particles, with sizes ranging from 100 to 800 nm. By varying the amount of EDTA utilized in the reaction medium and/or hydrothermal reaction time, the size of prepared silver particles can be readily controlled. Compared with silver nanoparticles, the assynthesized submicron-sized silver particles were found to show a comparable catalytic activity towards the reduction of 4-nitrophenol to 4-aminophenol in the presence of an excess amount of NaBH4. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.