Abstract
While high-aspect-ratio metal nanowires are essential for producing nanowire-based electrodes of good performance used in electronics and electrocatalysis, the synthesis of millimeter-long Cu nanowires remains a challenge. This work demonstrates an oleylamine-mediated hydrothermal method for synthesis of Cu nanowires with an average diameter of ~80 nm and a length up to several millimeters. An investigation on the role of oleylamine in nanowire formation by mass spectroscopy, small angle X-ray diffraction and transmission electron microscopy reveals that oleylamine serves as a mild reducing agent for slow reduction of Cu(II) to Cu, a complexing agent to form Cu(II)-oleylamine complex for guiding the nanowire growth, as well as a surfactant to generate lamellar phase structure for the formation of nanowire bundles. The growth mechanism of these millimeter-long Cu nanowire bundles is proposed based on the experimental observations. Electrochemical measurements by linear sweep voltammetry indicate that the self-supported nanowire electrode prepared from as-formed Cu nanowire bundles shows high catalytic activity for electroreduction of nitrate in water.
Highlights
Because of their highly anisotropic shape and finite size effects, metal nanowires often possess many physical and chemical properties that significantly differ from those observed in their bulk counterparts
It has been reported that the performance of nanowire-based conducting films depends strongly on the aspect ratio of the nanowires used, and long nanowires with small diameter are essential for producing film of high transparency and good conductivity [14]
In the case of electrocatalysis, the morphology of the electrocatalysts plays an important role in determining their activities [15,16,17] and the electrodes prepared from long nanowires with small diameter often own a high specific surface area and a good electrocatalytic activity
Summary
Because of their highly anisotropic shape and finite size effects, metal nanowires often possess many physical and chemical properties that significantly differ from those observed in their bulk counterparts. In the case of electrocatalysis, the morphology of the electrocatalysts plays an important role in determining their activities [15,16,17] and the electrodes prepared from long nanowires with small diameter often own a high specific surface area and a good electrocatalytic activity. For these reasons, the growth of ultra-long CuNWs has been a subject of great interest in recent years
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