Mixtures of Ag(hexanoate) and Ag(palmitate) give thermoreversible gels at very low concentration in toluene. The framework of the gel is composed of the branched nanosized fibers, contrary to the microsized wire precipitates of silver(I) carboxylates. The randomness of mixed-ligand silver(I) carboxylate polymeric chains hinders the crystallization process, resulting in very thin fibrils. This may be a new approach to design and control the properties of materials, which do not have properties involving gels or nanostructures in a conventional process.

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Ag(I) carboxylate gelators with mixed-ligands were systemically investigated to understand the mechanism of the organic gel formation. The gelators constructed 3-D networks of nanometer-sized thin fibers which facilitated gel formation in various aromatic organic solvents, even at very low concentrations. The loss of reflection peaks in the X-ray diffraction data indicated the reduction of strong interactions between the long alkyl chains as the Ag(I) carboxylates formed gels by maximizing their interactions with the organic solvents. The gelation temperature (Tgel) was measured to explore the interaction between the gelator molecules and solvents depending on their composition and concentration. Based on the gelation phenomena, a dissociation/ re-association mechanism was proposed.

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Size-controlled Ag nanoparticles (NPs) were prepared from the decomposition of Ag(I) carboxylates using ethanolamine derivatives as a reducing agent without an additional stabilizing agent. The size of the Ag NPs with a narrow size distribution (sub-10 nm to ca. 40 nm) was controlled precisely by varying the processing parameters, such as the type of reducing agent and the chain length of the carboxylate in the Ag(I) carboxylate. The optical properties, surface composition and crystallinity of the Ag NPs were characterized by ultraviolet-visible spectroscopy, gas chromatography-mass spectrometry, thermal gravimetric analysis, transmission electron microscopy and X-ray diffraction.