由于银纳米粒子的一些独特性质，它们在许多领域得到了广泛的应用，如分子诊断、催化和电子学。因此，开发一些新的合成方法来制备具有各种纳米结构的产品，并研究其性能受颗粒大小和形状的影响，是一个综合性的研究课题。近年来，各向同性（即球形或伪球形）粒子受到了广泛的关注。此外，许多制备粒径和粒径分布可控的颗粒的合成方法也已开发出来。这些纳米粒子的上述协议促进了对其结构、光学、催化以及电子性质的研究。然而，尽管已经对纳米粒子的组成、大小及其性质之间的关系给出了一些合理的解释，但对纳米粒子的物理化学性质与其形状之间关系的研究才刚刚起步。目前面临的问题主要有以下两个，其一是许多方法本质上是经验性的，只适用于非常特殊的条件或苛刻的实验条件，没有一种高效、节约成本和大规模的方法可以制备单分散低维（LD）银纳米结构。其二是如何控制各向异性银纳米结构的生长和形状的形成机制仍然存在争议，许多不同的机制已经被提出。目前，人们提出了多种机制，包括光诱导聚变机制、层错机制、聚集体生长机制和表面选择性吸附机制。然而，这些机制基本上都是从实验观察中获得的，而没有一个是定量的。这两个限制因素可能阻碍了LD银纳米结构应用的发展。近年来，研究者在这一领域做出了许多努力。本书试图对这些研究进行总结并开展相应工作，以期为今后的发展提供有益的信息。

Chapter 1 Introduction
1.1 Silver nanoparticles
1.1.1 Synthesis methods
1.1.2 Growth mechanism
1.2 Silver thin film
1.3 Noble metal nanoparticle doped composites
1.4 Functional properties and application of silver nanoparticles
1.4.1 Optical properties
1.4.2 Sensing application
1.4.3 Other potential application
Chapter 2 Silver Spherical Nanoparticles and Their Thin Film
2.1 Introduction
2.2 Experiment section
2.2.1 Chemicals
2.2.2 Synthesis
2.2.3 Characterization
2.3 Results and discussion
2.3.1 Nucleation and growth of silver nanoparticles
2.3.2 Microstructure of spherical nanoparticles
2.3.3 Effect of experimental parameters
2.3.4 Forming silver spherical nanoparticles on different substratesurfaces
2.3.5 Explore further coating procedures to form nanoshell structures
2.3.6 Superhydrophobic surfaces
2.4 Summary
Chapter 3 Silver Nanowires
3.1 Introduction
3.2 Experiment section
3.2.1 Chemicals
3.2.2 Method
3.2.3 Detection of Hg2+
3.2.4 Characterization
3.3 Results and discussion
3.3.1 Morphology, structure, and composition of silver nanowires
3.3.2 Effect of experimental parameters
3.3.3 Growth mechanism of V-shaped silver nanowires
3.3.4 Sensing detection of Hg2+
3.4 Summary
Chapter 4 Silver Nanoplates
4.1 Introduction
4.2 Experiment section
4.2.1 Chemicals
4.2.2 Method
4.2.3 Characterization
4.3 Results and discussion
4.3.1 The role of crystalline seed structure
4.3.2 The effect of temperature
4.4 Summary
Chapter 5 Silver Micro-nanostructure and Its Alloy
5.1 Introduction
5.2 Experiment section
5.2.1 Chemicals
5.2.2 Synthesis of Ag micro-scale nanoparticles
5.2.3 Synthesis of Ag-Au/Pt/Pd alloy
5.2.4 Preparation of TiO2 @ Ag and Ag alloy composite nanoparticles
5.2.5 Prepare partial oxidation of methanol reaction
5.2.6 Characterizations
5.3 Results and discussion
5.3.1 Morphology, structure and composition of silver micro-scale nanosphere
5.3.2 Effect of experimental parameters
5.3.3 Ag and Au/Pt/Pd alloy
5.3.4 Photocatalytic performance of Ag, Ag-Pt alloy and Ag-Pd alloy
5.3.5 Catalytic activity
5.4 Summary
Chapter 6Silver/Gold @ Sio2 Composite Materials
6.1 Introduction
6.2 Experimental section
6.2.1 Synthesis of silica nanoparticles
6.2.2 The Hexylamine synthesis method for fabrication of silica-coated silver/gold nanoparticles
6.2.3 The Glutathione method fabrication of silica-coated gold nanoparticles
6.2.4 Characterizations
6.3 Results and discussion
6.3.1 Preparation of silica nanoparticles
6.3.2 The fabrication of silica-coated silver/gold nanoparticles
6.3.3 The Glutathione method fabrication of silica-coated gold nanoparticles
6.4 Summary
Chapter 7Conclusions and Future Work
7.1 Silver spherical nanoparticles
7.2 Silver nanowires
7.3 Silver nanoplates
7.4 Silver micro-nanostructure and its alloy
7.5 Silver/Gold @ SiO2 composite materials
7.6 Future work
References