Strategies, challenges, and advancement in immobilizing silver nanomaterials

Silver nanoparticles have been widely studied for their distinct optoelectronic properties as well as their potent antimicrobial behavior. While these properties lend themselves to a host of applications ranging from sensors to biomedical applications to water purification, an important challenge is in developing experimental methods for the synthesis, assembly, and immobilization of silver nanoparticles over a range of sizes, shapes, and surface chemistry on different surfaces. This chapter will provide an overview on physical, chemical, as well as biological methods to produce silver nanoparticles and their immobilization on different surfaces such as Langmuir–Blodgett films, self-assembled monolayers, and renewable materials, to name a few. This chapter will discuss in some detail potential applications of immobilized silver nanoparticles.