Facile synthesis of Ag nanocubes of 30 to 70 nm in edge length with CF ₃COOAg as a precursor

This paper describes a new protocol to synthesize Ag nanocubes of 30 to 70 nm in edge length with the use of CF₃COOAg as a precursor to elemental silver. By adding a trace amount of NaSH and HCl to the polyol synthesis, Ag nanocubes were obtained with good quality, high reproducibility, and on a scale up to 0.19 g per batch for the 70 nm Ag nanocubes. The Ag nanocubes were found to grow in size at a controllable pace over the course of synthesis. The linear relationship between the edge length of the Ag nanocubes and the position of localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR) peak provides a simple method for finely tuning and controlling the size of the Ag nanocubes by monitoring the UV/Vis spectra of the reaction at different times.