We demonstrate a new, room-temperature approach to assemble two-dimensional and three-dimensional networks of gold nanowires by agitating nanoparticles in a toluene-aqueous mixture, without the use of templates. The nanowires have a uniform diameter of about 5 nm and consist of coalesced face-centered cubic nanocrystals. Toluene molecules passivate the gold surfaces during nanoparticle coalescence, rendering the nanowires hydrophobic and enabling their transfer into the toluene layer. Such templateless low-temperature assembly of mesostructures from nanoscale building blocks open up new possibilities for creating porous self-supporting nanocatalysts, nanowires for device interconnection, and low-density high-strength nanofillers for composites.

We describe a new, simple, room-temperature wet-chemical approach for assembling Au and Ag nanoparticles into nanowire networks, without the use of lithographic templates. Five to 35 nm-diameter nanowires passivated with a thin organic layer were synthesized by mechanically agitating a biphasic liquid mixture of an aqueous hydrosol containing the nanoparticles, and toluene. Nanowire structure and surface chemistry are discussed based on electron microscopy, UV-visible spectroscopy and thermogravimetric analyses.

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