The effect of temperature and reaction time on the shape of Ag nanowires synthesized using the polyol method

Abstract

Silver nanowires (Ag NWs) have attracted more attention in the last decade due to their potential applications in the next generation of flexible and wearable electronic devices. Several simple approaches were used to produce highly crystalline Ag NWs, but the synthesis parameter should still be precisely optimized to obtain high aspect ratio Ag NWs. In this study, we observed the morphological changes of Ag NWs during the synthesis to obtain the precise temperature and reaction time. AgNO3 is used as a source of metal ions, polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) as a capping agent or stabilizing agent, NaCl as a control agent, and ethylene glycol (EG) as a reducing agent and solvent. Synthesis was performed with temperatures of 150°C and 170°C, and it was observed in reaction times of 10, 15, 40, 80, and 120 min. The results show that Ag nanoparticles were formed in the first 10 min of the reaction then continue to form Ag NWs up to 80 min. After that, the diameter of Ag NWs starts to expand from 7.1 nm to 8.8 nm. The highly crystalline Ag NWs with an aspect ratio of 191.7 ± 9.8 were obtained in the synthesis performed at temperature of 170°C in 120 min.