Dendritic silver nanoparticles have been prepared by a soft solution technique from the aqueous solution of silver nitrate and poly (vinyl pyrrolidone) (PVP) in the presence of ethanol used as a reducing agent. The resultant silver nanoparticles were characterized by using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), energy dispersive analyses of X-ray (EDX), and UV-Visible absorption spectroscopy. It was found that the well-defined dendritic silver nanoparticles which had the length 0.5-1 mu m and the width of 100-200 nm. (C) 2005 Springer Science + Business Media, Inc.