Sara Ansari - Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Sciences, University of Guilan, P. O. Box: ۴۱۳۳۵-۱۹۱۴, Iran
Alireza Khorshidi - Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Sciences, University of Guilan, P. O. Box: ۴۱۳۳۵-۱۹۱۴, Iran

In the last decade, silver nanoparticles (Ag NPs) have attracted extensive attention due to their catalytic activity in a variety of organic reactions [1]. There are several reports on preparation and catalytic activity of Ag NPs. However, metal-nanoparticle catalysts always encounter limitations, due to problems associated with their stability and separation from the products by traditional methods [2]. In the present research, multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWNTs) were modified with carboxylic acid functional groups (MWCNTs-(COOH)n) prior to decoration with Fe3O4 nanoparticles. A further modification step by polyethyleneimine (PEI) resulted in Fe3O4-MWCNTs@PEI which provided a suitable platform for coordination and in situ reduction of silver ions to obtain Fe3O4-MWCNTs@PEI-Ag nanocomposite with highly dispersed Ag nanoparticles. The Fe3O4-MWCNTs@PEI-Ag hybrid material was characterized by various techniques such as Fourier-Transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), X-Ray diffraction (XRD) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM).

Silver; Nanoparticle; Magnetite; Multi-walled carbon nanotubes