Solvothermal fabrication of uniform silver nanowires

Conventional polyol synthesis has been widely used for the preparation of silver nanostructures with different morphologies. However, there is a drawback that it is difficult to control the reaction parameters for shape-controlled synthesis of silver nanostructures, such as the rate of the addition of silver ions to the solution. In this paper, we combine polyol process and solvothermal method for easily synthesizing silver nanostructures. Importantly, the introduction of cuprous chloride (CuCl) to the reaction leads to increasing the population of twinned Ag seeds (required for wire growth) at the expense of that of single Ag seeds. Silver nanowires (Ag NWs) with uniform width (similar to 80 nm in width) can be obtained in the presence of poly(vinyl pyrrolidone) (PVP). Some other parameters, such as the reaction temperature and molar ratios of the repeating unit of PVP to AgNO3 (R), also have been discussed. A possible mechanism is put forward to understand the evolution of silver nanostructures.