Synthesis of silver nanoparticles stabilized by stearic, palmitic and lauric acids is reported. Three reducing agents, which are moderate strong to mild, formaldehyde, triethanolamine and dimethylformamide, are used. The synthesized nanoparticles are dispersible in non-polar solvents such as benzene and toluene. The IR spectra showed the existence of adsorbed fatty acids. The toluene solution of these nanoparticles exhibited a surface plasmon resonance in the range 420-432 nm. It is shown that the silver nanoparticles have an enhanced stability with increasing chain length of the fatty acid. The size of the nanoparticles is greatly influenced by the experimental conditions such as temperature and concentration. The nanoparticles are characterized by UV-vis, FTIR, XRD, AFM and TEM techniques. (c) 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.