Synthesis of Silver Nanoparticles

The synthesis of nanoparticles provides students with an opportunity to investigate some of the unusual properties of the resulting colloidal mixture. Although a number of such preparations have been reported, we were intrigued by a recent report describing the use of a plant leaf extract to produce silver nanoparticles from an aqueous AgNO3 solution. We describe a version of this method that is suitable for use in the high school or undergraduate laboratory, providing an inexpensive, easy-to-perform option for the synthesis of nanoparticles.