  Metal nanoparticles have a substantial impact across different fields of
science, such as photochemistry, energy conversion, and medicine. Among the
commonly used nanoparticles, silver nanoparticles are of special interest due
to their antibacterial properties and applications in sensing and catalysis.
However, many of the methods used to synthesize silver nanoparticles often do
not result in well-defined products, the main obstacles being high
polydispersity or a lack of particle size tunability. We describe an automated
approach to on-demand synthesis of adjustable particles with mean radii of 3
and 5 nm using the polyol route. The polyol process is a promising route for
silver nanoparticles e.g., to be used as reference materials. We characterised
the as-synthesized nanoparticles using small-angle X-ray scattering, dynamic
light scattering and further methods, showing that automated synthesis can
yield colloids with reproducible and tuneable properties.
