Synthesis of Poly(vinyl pyrrolidone)/Silver Nanoprism Composites through Simultaneous Photoinduced Polymerization and Electron Transfer Processes

International audience; An investigation into the in situ preparation of polymer/silver nanoprism composites is described. Photoinitiated polymerizations of N-vinyl pyrrolidone (NVP) in water using 2-hydroxy-2-methyl-1-phenyl propanone as photoinitiator under nitrogen and simultaneous redox reactions of AgNO3 resulted in the formation of poly(N-vinyl pyrrolidone) (PNVP)/silver nanocomposites. Prolonged irradiations at low photoinitiator concentration and equimolar concentrations of AgNO3 and NVP produced only spherical silver nanoparticles. The nanocomposites produced at high silver and photoiniatiator concentrations with short irradiation times e.g. 5 min contain polygonal (mainly triangular) silver nanoprisms as evidenced by spectral and TEM analysis.