The Role of Oxygen in Synthesizing Monodisperse Silver Nanocubes

Abstract

In this work, we report on silver nanocubes prepared by using the conventional polyol synthesis in the presence of hydrochloric acid and oxygen. We found that by controlling the headspace oxygen concentration in the sample vial at a temperature of 140°C, monodisperse silver nanocubes of 100–115 nm in edge length were produced. A specific headspace oxygen concentration along with the chloride ions promoted the oxidative etching of twinned particles so that only single crystal cubes were produced. At lower oxygen concentrations, nanorods and wires were obtained whereas at very high concentrations all the particles were completely etched away resulting in a solution with no nanoparticles. Electron diffraction and X-ray diffraction analysis was employed to study the structural characterization. Scanning electron microscopy was used to examine the morphology of the silver nanoparticles.