Abstract
This study aims to determine the effect of fast cooling (quenching) on thermal properties, mechanical strength, morphology and size of the AgNWs. The synthesis of AgNWs was carried out at three different quenching-medium temperatures as follows: at 27 °C (ambient temperature), 0 °C (on ice), and −80 °C (in dry ice) using the polyol method at 130 °C. Furthermore, the AgNWs were sonified for 45 min to determine their mechanical strength. Scanning electron microscopy analysis showed that the quenched AgNWs had decreased significantly; at 27 °C, the AgNWs experienced a change in length from (40 ± 10) to (21 ± 6) µm, at 0 °C from (37 ± 8) to (24 ± 8) µm, and at −80 °C from (34 ± 9) to (29 ± 1) µm. The opposite occurred for their diameter with an increased quenching temperature: at 27 °C from (200 ± 10) to (210 ± 10) nm, at 0 °C from (224 ± 4) to (239 ± 8) nm, and at −80 °C from (253 ± 6) to (270 ± 10) nm. The lower the temperature of the quenching medium, the shorter the length and the higher the mechanical strength of AgNWs. The UV-Vis spectra of the AgNWs showed peak absorbances at 350 and 411 to 425 nm. Thermogravimetric analysis showed that AgNWs quenched at −80 °C have better thermal stability as their mass loss was only 2.88%, while at the quenching temperatures of 27 °C and 0 °C the mass loss was of 8.73% and 4.17%, respectively. The resulting AgNWs will then be applied to manufacture transparent conductive electrodes (TCEs) for optoelectronic applications.
Highlights
In the last decade, nanotechnology research has attracted the attention of researchers and academics in developing new technologies from materials that have good physical properties [1,2]
The transmission electron microscopy (TEM) images and relationship between the temperature of the quenching medium of Ag-based NWs (AgNWs) are shown in Figures 3 and 4
AgNWs quenched at 27 ◦C had a length and diameter of (40 ± 10) μm and (200 ± 20) nm, at 0 ◦C of (37 ± 8) μm and (224 ± 4) nm, and at −80 ◦C of (34 ± 9) μm and (253 ± 6) nm, respectively. These results indicate that a decrease in the average length of the AgNWs is caused by a decrease in the temperature of the quenching medium
Summary
Nanotechnology research has attracted the attention of researchers and academics in developing new technologies from materials that have good physical properties [1,2]. Nanotechnology is the manipulation of atoms and molecules to produce materials below the sub-macroscopic level [3,4]. The advantage of these nanostructured materials is the uniqueness of their mechanical, electronic, optical, and magnetic properties, which are different from those of micro or macro-sized materials [5,6]. An important factor in the development of nanotechnology is the synthesis of a material to obtain a nano-sized material. The research on nanotechnology that is currently being developed is nanowires (NWs). NWs are considered to be promising materials because of their wide applications, such as in energy [7,8,9,10,11], environmental [12], health [13], sensor [14,15,16,17] and optoelectronics [17,18,19]
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