Granted Patent B2

US 7,919,015 · App. 11/543,661 · Granted Apr 5, 2011

Abstract

Claims (20)

1. A process comprising:

providing a composition comprising silver-containing nanoparticles and molecules of an initial stabilizer on the surface of the silver-containing nanoparticles;

mixing a replacement stabilizer comprising a carboxylic acid with the composition to form a reaction mixture and to replace at least a portion of the initial stabilizer with the replacement stabilizer, resulting in molecules of the replacement stabilizer on the surface of the silver-containing nanoparticles;

adding the reaction mixture to a non-solvent to precipitate the silver-containing nanoparticle wherein the non-solvents are selected from the group consisting of methanol, ethanol, propanol, acetone and mixtures thereof; and

collecting the silver-containing nanoparticles.

2. The process of claim 1 , wherein the size of the silver-containing nanoparticles is from about 0.5 nm to about 1000 nm.

3. The process of claim 1 , wherein the size of the silver-containing nanoparticles is from about 1 nm to about 100 nm.

4. The process of claim 1 , wherein the initial stabilizer is a compound comprising a moiety selected from selected from the group consisting of —NH 2 , —NH—, —SH, —C 5 H 4 N, —COOH, —COOM, R′R″P—, R′R″ P(═O)—, and mixtures thereof, wherein M is Li, Na, or K, and wherein R′ and R″ are independently an alkyl or aryl.

5. The process of claim 1 , wherein the initial stabilizer comprises an organoamine.

6. The process of claim 1 , wherein the initial stabilizer comprises octylamine, nonylamine, decylamine, undecylamine, dodecylamine, tridecylamine, tetradecylamine, pentadecylamine, hexadecylamine, oleylamine, octadecylamine, and mixtures thereof.

7. The process of claim 1 , wherein the initial stabilizer comprises a carboxylic acid that is different from the carboxylic acid of the replacement stabilizer.

8. The process of claim 1 , wherein the carboxylic acid comprises from 1 to about 50 carbon atoms.

9. The process of claim 1 , wherein the carboxylic acid comprises from about 4 to about 20 carbon atoms.

10. A process comprising:

providing a composition comprising silver-containing nanoparticles and molecules of an initial stabilizer on the surface of the silver-containing nanoparticles;

mixing a replacement stabilizer comprising a carboxylic acid with the composition to form a reaction mixture and to replace at least a portion of the initial stabilizer with the replacement stabilizer, resulting in molecules of the replacement stabilizer on the surface of the silver-containing nanoparticles;

adding the reaction mixture to a non-solvent to precipitate he silver-containing nanoparticles; and

collecting the silver-containing nanoparticles;

wherein the carboxylic acid comprises butyric acid, pentanoic acid, hexanoic acid, heptanoic acid, octanoic acid, nonanoic acid, decanoic acid, undecanoic acid, dodecanoic acid, tridecanoic acid, myristic acid, pentadecanoic acid, palmitic acid, heptadecanoic acid, stearic acid, oleic acid, nonadecanoic acid, or icosanoic acid, or mixtures thereof.

11. The process of claim 1 , wherein there is a residual amount of the initial stabilizer on the surface of the silver-containing nanoparticles, after the mixing of the replacement stabilizer.

Assignments (10)