Polymer-assisted in-situ thermal reduction of silver precursors: A solventless route for silver nanoparticles-polymer composites

Publication date: 1 June 2020Source: Chemical Engineering Journal, Volume 389Author(s): Dambarudhar Parida, Pietro Simonetti, Ruggero Frison, Ezgi Bülbül, Stefanie Altenried, Yadira Arroyo, Zoltán Balogh-Michels, Walter Caseri, Qun Ren, Rudolf Hufenus, Sabyasachi GaanAbstractA simple one-step solventless in-situ reduction method was developed to prepare silver nanoparticle (AgNP) based polymer composites using different silver precursors and thermoplastic polymers. This method utilizes the mild reducing environment of thermoplastic polymer melts to convert silver precursors to AgNPs during the extrusion process. Complete reduction of Ag2O with broad AgNP size distribution (20 ± 18 nm) in polyamide 6 (PA6) was obtained after 5 min processing. For same matrix, the uniformity of AgNPs improved significantly after 10 min processing time, associated with a slight increase in the particle diameter (26 ± 9 nm). No significant impact of in-situ AgNP synthesis method on chemical and macromolecular characteristics of polyamide 6 was detected. When this method was used to synthesize AgNPs in polylactic acid and polypropylene, the influence of surface energy of polymer melt was evident. Reduction of Ag2O in polylactic acid (at 165 °C) was slower compared to PA6 and 95 ± 3% Ag2O reduction was achieved after 10 min of processing. When polypropylene was used as the matrix, only 60% reduction of Ag2O was achieved, possibly due to poor wetting of the silver precursor, owing to...
Source: Chemical Engineering Journal - Category: Chemistry Source Type: research