Continuous synthesis of monodispersed silver nanoparticles using a homogeneous heating microwave reactor system

Continuous synthesis of silver nanoparticles based on a polyol process was conducted using a microwave-assisted flow reactor installed in a cylindrical resonance cavity. Silver nitrate (AgNO3) and poly(N-vinylpyrrolidone) (PVP) dissolved in ethylene glycol were used respectively as a silver metal precursor and as a capping agent of nanoparticles. Ethylene glycol worked as the solvent and simultaneously as the reductant. Silver nanoparticles of narrow size distributions were synthesized steadily for 5 h, maintaining almost constant yield (>93%) and quality. The reaction was achieved within 2.8 s of residence time, although nanoparticles were not formed under this flow rate by conventional heating. A narrower particle size distribution was realized by the increased flow rate of the reaction solution. Nanoparticles of 9.8 nm average size with a standard deviation of 0.9 nm were synthesized at the rate of 100 ml h−l.