Understanding the Role of Poly(vinylpyrrolidone) in Stabilizing and Capping Colloidal Silver Nanocrystals

The ligands anchored to the surface of metal nanocrystals play an important role in controlling their colloidal synthesis for a broad spectrum of applications, but it remains a daunting challenge to investigate the ligand–surface and ligand–solvent interactions at the molecular level. Here, we report the use of surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) to extract structural information about the binding of poly(vinylpyrrolidone) (PVP) to Ag...