A novel, fast and facile microwave technique has been developed for preparing monodispersed silica coated silver (Ag@SiO2) nanoparticles. Without using any other surface coupling agents such as 3-aminopropyltrimethoxysilane (APS) or polymer such as polyvinyl pyrrolidone (PVP), Ag@SiO2 nanoparticles could be easily prepared by microwave irradiation of a mixture of colloidal silver nanoparticles, tetraethoxysilane (TEOS) and catalyst for only 2 min. The thickness of silica shell could be conveniently controlled in the range of few nanometers (nm) to 80 nm by changing the concentration of TEOS. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and UV-visible spectroscopy were employed to characterize the morphology and optical properties of the prepared Ag@SiO2 nanoparticles, respectively. The prepared Ag@SiO2 nanoparticles exhibited a change in surface plasmon absorption depending on the silica thickness. Compared to the conventional techniques based on Stober method, which need 4-24 h for silica coating of Ag nanoparticles, this new technique is capable of synthesizing monodispersed, uniform and single core containing Ag@SiO2 nanoparticles within very short reaction time. In addition, straightforward surface functionalization of the prepared Ag@SiO2 nanoparticles with desired functional groups was performed to make the particles useful for many applications. The components of surface functionalized nanoparticles were examined by Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy, zeta potential measurements and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). (C) 2010 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.