Fig. 3

Proposed mechanism of synthesis for the formation of BiNPs. Bismuth (III) ions, solubilized in a glycine solution (a), interact with BAL, leading to the formation of the bismuth-BAL complex (b). Finally, NaBH4 induces the generation of PVP-BiNPs (c). Hydrogens atoms were not included in the molecular models for clarity. Molecules were built using the GLmol engine at http://molview.org/