The present work describes a method for preparation of Ag nanoparticles from chemical reduction of AgNO3 in ethanol with ATS [N-[3-(trimethoxysilyl)propyl diethylenetriamine] as surface modifier. We study the influence of different parameters such as concentration, time, temperature and reductor agents on the size and shape of the nanoparticles. We present the morphologic and structural characterization of samples by UV-vis extinction spectroscopy, Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) and X-ray diffraction (XRD). Particularly, using optical extinction spectroscopy, the present work shows the analysis of size evolution in the fabrication process of spherical silver nanoparticles. This evolution is studied as a function of the time elapsed between the beginning of the reaction and the extraction of the sample (temporal delayed synthesis), and as a function of the temperature during the chemical reaction. In both the cases, we propose the study of the plasmon width as a useful, simple and inexpensive method for analysis of the mean radius, specially, for values below 6 nm. (C) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.