A Novel Discovery of Growth Process for Ag Nanowires and Plausible Mechanism

A novel growth process of silver nanowires was revealed by tracing the morphology evolution of Ag nanostructures fabricated by an improved polyol process. A mixture of Ag nanowires and nanoparticles was obtained with the usage of PVP-K25 MW = 38,000. The products sampled at different reaction time were studied in detail using UV-visible absorption spectra and transmission electron microscopy TEM. An interesting phenomenon unknown in the past was observed where Ag nanoparticles undergo an important dissolution-recrystallization process and Ag nanowires are formed at the expense of the preformed Ag nanoparticles. A plausible novel growth mechanism for the silver nanowires was proposed.