In
this work, we tried to combine the advantages of microemulsion
and emulsion synthesis to obtain stable concentrated organosols of
Ag nanoparticles, promising liquid-phase materials. Starting reagents
were successively introduced into a micellar solution of sodium bis-(2-ethylhexyl)sulfosuccinate
(AOT) in n-decane in the dynamic reverse emulsion
mode. During the contact of the phases, Ag+ passes into
micelles and Na+ passes into emulsion microdroplets through
the cation exchange AOTNaOrg + AgNO3
Aq = AOTAgOrg + NaNO3
Aq. High concentrations
of NaNO3 and hydrazine in the microdroplets favor an osmotic
outflow of water from the micelles, which reduces their polar cavities
to ∼2 nm. As a result, silver ions are contained in the micelles,
and the reducing agent is present mostly in emulsion microdroplets.
The reagents interact in the polar cavities of micelles to form ∼7
nm Ag nanoparticles. The produced nanoparticles are positively charged,
which permitted their electrophoretic concentration to obtain liquid
concentrates (up to 30% Ag) and a solid Ag–AOT composite (up
to 75% Ag). Their treatment at 250 °C leads to the formation
of conductive films (180 mOhm per square). The developed technique
makes it possible to increase the productivity of the process by ∼30
times and opens up new avenues of practical application for the well-studied
microemulsion synthesis.