Silver nanoparticles prepared through a borohydride-reduction method were directly coated with silica by means of a seeded polymerization technique based on the Stober method. Various amine catalysts were used for initialization of a sol-gel reaction of TEOS with no need for a prior surface modification. Use of dimethylamine (DMA) as a catalyst was found to be necessary to obtain a proper coating. The silica shell thickness was varied from 28 to 76 nm for TEOS concentrations of 1-15 mM at 11.1 M water and 0.8 M DMA. The optical spectra of the core-shell silver-silica composite particles show a qualitative agreement with predictions by Mie theory. (C) 2004 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.