Synthesis of size-controlled Ag nanowires via a seed-mediated growth method

Abstract

Seed-mediated growth has attracted much attention due to the wide range of controllability in size and shape, improved reproducibility, and capability to form bimetallic structures. Especially, seed-mediated growth of Ag has been extensively studied due to the excellent electrical, thermal, optical, and catalytic properties of Ag, but it has been conducted mainly for isotropic seeds such as nanocubes, and relatively little attention has been given to anisotropic seeds such as nanowires. We studied the seed-mediated growth of Ag nanowires for their size control, exploring the effect of hydrochloric acid (HCl), capping agents, and seeds to find the experimental condition for heterogeneous nucleation. By the optimized condition, the length and diameter were grown up to nearly 7 and 12 times, respectively, by those of seeds. Interestingly, for the condition that causes homogeneous nucleation, Ag particles of various shapes, including nanocubes, nanowires, and micro rods, were synthesized. The size-controlled Ag nanowires and Ag particles of various shapes obtained in this work are expected to be applied for the study of low resistance electrodes and the size- and shape-dependent properties of metal nanomaterials.