The fabrication of polycrystalline silver nanowires via self-assembled nanotubes at controlled temperature

Abstract

We report a novel method for the fabrication of silver nanowires under controlled conditions. Silver nanoparticles were synthesized using a surfactant of octanoic acid via a reverse micelle technique. Hollow nanotubes were prepared under various controlled conditions through self-assembly of surfactant clusters of reversed micelles containing silver nanoparticles. These organized nanotubes were used as a structure-directing template for the preparation of silver nanowires. This is a bottom-up technique for the fabrication of silver nanowires. Self-assembled nanotube construction and the cross section of the nanotubes were investigated using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) techniques. From the results, reasonable schematic representations of the formation of self-assembled nanoparticles and nanowires were proposed. Further sintering treatment at 500 degrees C burned away the organic compounds and left silver nanowires. The construction of the nanowires was confirmed using SEM, x-ray diffraction (XRD), and energy dispersive x-ray analysis (EDXA). This paper demonstrates that silver nanowires can be fabricated via self-assembled nanoparticles at a controlled low temperature.

Nanoscale Twinned Copper Nanowire Formation by Direct Electrodeposition

“…Since the properties of metal nanowires strongly depend on their size and microstructure,5, 8, 9 developing an approach to produce and tune wire size and structure is highly relevant. Although a variety of methods such as electrodeposition guided by templates,10–17 hydrothermal reduction,18 colloidal methods,8, 19–23 and vapor‐phase deposition24 have been successfully used to synthesize gold,10–12 silver,8, 19–23 and copper nanowires,13, 10, 14, 18, 24 most efforts have focused on size‐controlling and size‐dependent properties 5, 6, 9, 22, 25, 26. Much less is known about tuning microstructure and about microstructure‐dependent properties due to difficulties associated with controlling the microstructure within such small objects.…”

Fabrication of polycrystalline silver nanowires via reversed micelle with amphiphilic diblock copolymer and aluminum oxide template at controlled temperature

“…Figure 9b is an enlargement of a sample wire. Figure 9c shows a nanowire sample fabricated in our previous report [29]. It is noteworthy that the surface roughness of nanowires fabricated in this investigation is much higher even though the sintering temperature used in this investigation is also much higher.…”

“… Fabricated silver nanowires (a) using AAO hard template via a sintering of naked silver nanoparticles, (b) enlargement of a silver nanowire, and (c) silver nanowire fabricated in our previous article [29]. The scale bar for (a), and (b) and (c) are 1 μm and 100 nm, respectively.…”

“…After sintering at 500°C for 1 h, AAO hard template was removed and silver nanowires with different surface smoothness were obtained. The surfactant effect on both the formation of self assembly of nanoparticle clusters and surface roughness of silver nanowires were compared with previous reported results [29].…”

“…Furthermore, no fabrication process for silver nanowires via reverse micelles using an AAO template at a controlled low temperature has appeared to date. To compare the surfactant effect on both self assembly of nanoparticle clusters and surface roughness of silver nanowires with those in our reported article [29], in this investigation, we demonstrate a novel method of fabricating silver nanoparticles using an amphiphilic diblock copolymer and a reverse micelle method, and then use an AAO template to fabricate silver nanowires at a controlled low temperature. The melting point of the synthesized naked silver nanoparticles was found to be reduced from 962°C to 115°C.…”