Synthesis and characterization of Ag/Ag2CO3 nanoparticles stabilized over montmorillonite

The precipitation method was used for synthesis of Ag2Co3 bulk and Ag2CO3-MMT nanocamposite samples in two different solvent, ethylene glycol and water. Thesamples were characterized by diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (DRS), X-ray diffraction (XRD), and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The mean diameter of Ag and Ag2CO3nanoparticles was evaluated at ~2-3 and ~10-12 nm, respectively. XRD results showed that inethylene glycol solvent all Ag+ ions reduced to metallic silver. But Ag/Ag2CO3-MMT nanocomposite can synthesized in water solvent. X-ray diffraction patterns indicate thatMMT (1.22 nm) has a d-spacing lower than Ag2CO3-MMT nanocomposite (1.86 nm). This result implied that Ag/Ag2CO3 nanoparticles can exist in micropore of MMT. The diffusereflectance spectra show that the value of band gap energy for Ag/Ag2CO3-MMTnanocomposite is (2.56 eV) so nanocatalyst is a good candidate for plasmon photocatalyst applications or antibacterial activity.

Keywords:

nanocomposite , montmorillonite , antibacterial