Structure and supramolecular organization of silver nitrate modified epoxy or amino terminated liquid oligoethers

Abstract

The behavior of silver nitrate in non-aqueous liquid oligomeric media—aromatic and aliphatic diglycidyl ethers and aliphatic diamine—has been investigated. By employing UV–visible spectrophotometry and dynamic light scattering, it has been shown that in diglycidyl oligomers, regardless of the nature of the monomeric unit, the formation of silver nanoparticles occurs, and the kinetics of this process has been studied. At the same time, in the medium of aliphatic diamine, the reduction of silver ions is absent, indicating the formation of a complex compound. XANES and EXAFS confirmed the formation of such a complex, established the probable coordination number of silver equal to three, and characterized the nearest atomic environment of silver. The SAXS results indicate the formation of complexes of extended conformation environment associated oligodiamine molecules, which favors the formation of an extended network of associates. The SAXS data were used to calculate the composition of the mixture of complexes and associates of diamine molecules for a saturated solution of silver nitrate in diamine. The results of this work will be used to develop new oligomer–silver nanocomposites with unique optical and bactericidal properties.