Dynamics of Solvation and Rotational Relaxation of Coumarin 480 in Pure Aqueous-AOT Reverse Micelle and Reverse Micelle Containing Different-Sized Silver Nanoparticles Inside Its Core: A Comparative Study

In this work, we have synthesized different-sized silver nanoparticles in an aqueous-AOT reverse micellar system under the same condition by choosing different reduction processes. We chose two different reducing agents, glucose (mild) and sodium borohydride (strong). In the glucose reduction process, we obtained smaller size nanoparticles in comparison to the nanoparticles obtained in the borohydride reduction process under the same condition. Solvation dynamics study showed that reverse micellar aggregated structures were present after the nanoparticles' formation in a perturbed state. Nanoparticles inside the reverse micellar core were responsible for this perturbation. Larger size nanoparticles were triggering larger perturbation than the smaller size nanoparticles. These changes in perturbation were also reflected clearly in solvation dynamics and rotational relaxation measurements