A Simple Two-Phase System Involving the Commercial Organophosphorous Extractant Cyanex® 471x for the Preparation of Silver Sulphide Nanoparticles

The facile chemical synthesis of silver sulphide nanocrystals from metal-loaded organic media, containing a silver-selective organophosphorous ligand as extractant, is reported. The method involves the phase-transfer of silver species from aqueous nitrate media to organic solution using the commercial extractant Cyanex? 471x (tri-isobutylphosphine sulphide, Cytec Co.) as extractant, followed by precipitation stripping using ammonium sulphide as strip reagent. The nanoparticles were structurally characterized, and some aspects of the synthetical process, are briefly discussed. Under the conditions studied, the extractant Cyanex? 471x was able to act as stabilizer adsorbing on the particles surface, maintaining the size of the particles nanometrical.