Ripening of bimodally distributed AgCl nanoparticles

Ripening of AgCl nanoparticles with a bimodal size distribution has been carefully studied in ethylene glycol containing poly(vinyl pyrrolidone) (PVP) as capping molecules and at elevated temperatures (e.g., 160 degrees C). The resulting AgCl particles exhibit high uniformity in size and cube-tetrapod morphology that are significantly different from the original AgCl nanoparticles. In addition, enhanced reducing ability of ethylene glycol at high temperature partially reduces AgCl to form Ag nanocrystalline domains in the AgCl particles, leading the AgCl particles to be efficiently absorbing visible light and to serve as a class of visible-light-driven photocatalysts due to the strong surface plasmon resonance (SPR) associated with the Ag nanocrystallites.