Facile synthesis of single-crystal and controllable sized silver nanoparticles on the surfaces of polyacrylonitrile nanofibres

A simple method has been demonstrated for the synthesis of single-crystal and controllable sized silver nanoparticles (Ag NPs) homogeneously distributed on the surfaces of polyacrylonitrile (PAN) nanofibres via electrospinning followed by UV irradiation. Keeping the concentration of PAN at 7 wt%, the diameters of the monodisperse single-crystal Ag NPs can be adjusted from 3.5 to 10 nm by varying the molar ratio of silver nitrate to PAN (in terms of the repeating unit: AN). Transmission electron microscopy (TEM), field emitting scanning electron microscopy (FESEM) and x-ray diffraction (XRD) are used to characterize the products.