Preparation of highly pure and homogeneous silver nanowires via a secondary heating method

Abstract

In recent years, silver nanowires (AgNWs) have been widely studied and used as nanofillers in various advanced composite materials due to their excellent properties. The addition of AgNWs can lead to electronic devices with enhanced performance; thus, it is highly desirable to synthesize silver nanowires with high purity. However, the AgNWs synthesized by the conventional polyol method inevitably produce impurities that weaken the performance of these materials. For this reason, the conventional polyol method was improved into a secondary heating method, and AgNWs with high purity, excellent homogeneity, and an aspect ratio of 2000 were obtained via the secondary heating method. In addition, the AgNWs synthesized by the secondary heating method were compared with those synthesized by the direct heating method, and the AgNWs produced by the secondary heating method had higher purity and fewer impurities. The principles of AgNWs production via the secondary heating method were investigated, and the conditions required for the synthesis of AgNWs with high purity, great homogeneity, and high aspect ratio, such as reaction time, starting temperature, secondary temperature, and the molar ratio of NaCl to AgNO3, were also investigated.