One-step synthesis of oxidation-resistant Cu@Ag core–shell nanoparticles

One-step synthesis of wet chemical method is proposed for the preparation of core–shell nanostructures of copper and silver. This facile and environment friendly fabrication simplifies the surface treatment of copper particles to avoid copper core to be oxidised before coating silver. The thermal stability against oxidation and electrical properties of Cu@Ag core–shell nanoparticles are investigated. The results show that Cu@Ag core–shell nanoparticles possess high spherical degree, and the silver is evenly coated on the surface of copper nanoparticles. The synthesised spherical Cu@Ag core–shell nanoparticles exhibit excellent thermal stability at the high temperature of 300°C. After annealing at 200°C for 30 min, the sheet resistance of the spherical Cu@Ag core–shell nanoparticles (Ag content 7.68 wt%) is extremely low (69.82 μΩ cm).