The effects of a cationic surfactant on copper nanowires and their dimensions

Abstract

Copper nanowires were synthesized using a solution method with varying the amount of a cationic surfactant, CTAB. It was revealed that CTAB can effectively decrease the dimensions of copper nanowires and improve the nanowire surface quality. At a small CTAB concentration of 0.0169 M, the diameter and the length of copper nanowires were reduced by 55% and 43%, respectively, with respect to the nano wires grown without CTAB. This is discussed based on the interplay between CTAB and EDA. A series of syntheses with varying reaction time confirmed that CTAB can also accelerate the nanowire growth rate. When HDA was used as a replacement of EDA, copper nanoparticles were formed with few nanowires, indicating that a combination of HDA and CTAB functions in a way different frorn the combination of EDA and CTAB. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.