Fabrication of Ag–C composite materials with core–shell structure

Abstract This article reports the chemical deposition of silver shells on the surface of micro-carbon spheres. The structure, morphology and composition were characterized by scanning electron microscopy and X-ray diffraction. Carbon spheres were oxidized with concentrated nitric acid and sulfuric acid for the surface hydrophilic modifier. Subsequently Carbon spheres were coupled with KH-550 in order to grafting NH2 groups, which is important to the site-selective deposition of silver during sensitization and activation process. The dispersible Ag/C core–shell composite could be systematically controlled through adding appropriate PVP and adjusting modest pH value in the deposition process. The XRD and SEM results show that the silver particles can completely coat the carbon spheres and the particle size of the silver shell on the surface of carbon core is 24.8 nm.