Stirring-induced growth of hierarchical Cu structures in the presence of diamine

Abstract

We propose a novel strategy for the synthesis of materials with a hierarchical structure. This strategy is based on in situ combination of two processes, namely, capping agent-mediated oriented growth and stirring-induced aggregation, and the growth of Cu crystals in the presence of linear alkyl diamines of short carbon chain length under vigorous stirring is shown to demonstrate its feasibility. Our experimental results have shown that the oriented growth of Cu nanowires can be significantly disturbed by vigorous stirring, resulting in large-scale growth of hierarchical dendritic Cu crystals. The morphology of grown dendritic Cu crystals has been found to vary with the stirring rate, type of diamine, and diamine concentration, which makes it possible to prepare hierarchical Cu structures of various morphologies. The growth mechanism of these hierarchical Cu structures is proposed based on the experimental observations. The present unique strategy offers a fresh way to fabricate materials with a hierarchical structure.