Facile synthesis of needle-like single-crystal silver clusters

Abstract

The single-crystal silver clusters with needle-like morphology are prepared through a simple silver seed-assisted approach for the first time. The surface of the ‘seeds template’ has a guiding effect on the formation of silver clusters. The characteristic results reveal that the silver needles are typical 5-10 µm in length, while the diameters of the needle tips and roots are 10-30 nm and 100-200 nm, respectively. Further, the possible growth mechanism of single-crystal needle-like silver clusters is proposed.