Online and in-situ monitoring of the growth of silver nanowires and nanoparticles with conductive measurement

Abstract

For the first time, a simple and in-situ method using online conductivity meters was introduced to monitor the growth process of silver nanowires (Ag NWs). With the help of direct online measurement of conductivity and further simple calculation of silver ion concentrations during reduction, a simple and linear equation was reported. The growth process was identified for several phases based on the conductivity variation curve, which was in accordance with the results of scanning electron microscopy, UV–vis spectra, and XRD analysis. Besides Ag NWs, this method could be applied to the chemical reduction process of silver nanoparticles (Ag NPs), thereby showing certain universality for different metal nanocrystals. This new method is simple, in-situ, online and thus could be powerfully used in application for the study of influential factors on the controllable synthesis of metal crystals in the lab and the monitoring of stable industrious production at a large scale.