Preparation of silver-latex composites

Several in-situ chemical reduction methods were systematically evaluated in view of the formation of silver-latex composites, and in particular with respect to the task of coating colloidal latex spheres with uniform thin layers of silver. Such nanocomposite materials are of profound interest, due to their expected novel optical properties. The samples were investigated by transmission electron microscopy and UV-vis spectroscopy. A range of silver particle features was obtained, including even and uniform silver coatings in the nanometer size regime on the latex particles.