Aqueous dispersions of metallic nanoparticles preparation, stabilization, and application

Nanoparticles, which have attracted considerable interest in recent years, are usually defined as particles with dimensions in the range of 1-100 nm [1-3]. Virtually nanomaterials are well-known substances with novel chemical and physical properties and promising applications based on their unique characteristics (optical, electrical, mechanical, thermal, magnetic, catalytic, etc.), which differ from those of atomic and bulk species [2-18]. These differences originate from extremely large ratio of surface area to volume (e.g., for spherical Fe particles with diameter of 3 nm about half of the atoms are located at the surface, while for 10 nm particles this value is about 15% [19,20]) and also from the quantum confinement effects. The rapid growth of researches and applications of nanoparticles resulted in origination and development of new boundary fields of science and technology: nanoscience studying the phenomena and mechanisms governing the behavior of materials at the nanoscale level, and nanotechnology dealing with design, production, manipulation, and application of functional materials and devices based on nanostructures [1,4].