Preparation of Silver Nanorods by Rapid Microwave Heating

We report a method for preparing silver nanorods by a rapid heating process. The procedure we use is one in which a silver salt is reduced to silver metal by sodium citrate under the influence of microwave irradiation. The silver products were characterized by UV-vis absorption spectroscopy, transmission electron microscopy, energy-dispersive X-ray analysis, and X-ray diffractometry. Key aspects for the production of nanorods having high aspect ratios are rapid microwave heating and adequate reaction times.