"Green" synthesis of size controllable Prussian blue nanoparticles stabilized by soluble starch.

"Green" and size-controlled Prussian blue (PB) nanoparticles have been synthesized using soluble starch as protective agent. The transmission electron images (TEM) showed that the average dimensions of the monodispersed.PB nanoparticles could be tuned from 5 to 20 nm by using different concentration of starch. X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis further identified a face-centered cubic structure of the nanoparticles. Investigations of optical properties of nanoparticles were also conducted with FT-IR and UV-vis spectroscopy. Moreover, cyclic voltammograms (CV) showed that the starch-PB nanoparticles kept their intrinsic electrochemical properties. The utilization of environmentally benign and renewable starch as the protecting agents offers numerous benefits ranging from environmental safety to integration of these nanomaterials to biologically relevant systems.