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A novel method of making silver nanoparticles in water-in-oil microemulsions using the surfactants as both the reducing agent and as the structure-directing agent is presented. Since no external strong reducing agent is used the kinetics of the formation is slow, which makes it possible to study the silver nanoparticle formation in situ. The microemulsions used were based on either the nonionic surfactant Brij30 (C12E4), which reduces the silver ion to metallic silver and is thereby partly oxidized, or mixtures of Brij30 and AOT (sodium bis(2-ethylhexyl) sulfosuccinate, where the latter does not reduce the silver ions. The influences of silver ion and nonionic surfactant concentrations on the formation kinetics of the nanoparticles were followed in situ using UV−vis spectroscopy, and both parameters were found to have a big influence. The microemulsion droplet's size, size distribution, and shape were examined by small …