title: Effect of ionic liquid impurities on the synthesis of silver nanoparticles.
abstract: Imidazolium-based ionic liquids have been widely utilized as versatile solvents for metal nanoparticle synthesis; however, reactions to synthesize silver nanoparticles that are performed identically in different commercially obtained lots of 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium tetrafluoroborate (BMIM-BF(4)) give divergent results. This suggests that impurities in these nominally identical solvents play an important role in the resulting silver nanoparticle quality. To test the effect that impurities have on the quality of silver nanoparticles synthesized in BMIM-BF(4), silver nanoparticles were synthesized in carefully prepared and purified BMIM-BF(4) and compared against silver nanoparticles that were synthesized in the purified BMIM-BF(4) that had been spiked with trace amounts of water, chloride, and 1-methylimidazole. It was clearly demonstrated that trace amounts of these common ionic liquid impurities cause significant deviation in size and shape (creating polydisperse and irregularly shaped ensembles of both large and small particles), and also negatively impact the stabilization of the resulting silver nanoparticles.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California 90089, United States.
authors.forename: Laura L
authors.initials: LL
authors.lastname: Lazarus
authors.forename: Carson T
authors.initials: CT
authors.lastname: Riche
authors.forename: Noah
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Malmstadt
authors.forename: Richard L
authors.initials: RL
authors.lastname: Brutchey
mesh_terms: D007093:Imidazoles / Q000138:chemical synthesis / Q000737:chemistry*; D052578:Ionic Liquids / Q000737:chemistry*; D053768:Metal Nanoparticles / Q000737:chemistry*; D010316:Particle Size; D012834:Silver / Q000737:chemistry*; D013499:Surface Properties
chemical_list: C419324:1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium tetrafluoroborate; D007093:Imidazoles; D052578:Ionic Liquids; D012834:Silver