Preparation of Dendritic Nanostructures of Silver and Their Characterization for Electroreduction

Abstract

Silver nanostructures of different morphologies including well-defined dendrites were synthesized on an Au substrate by a simple surfactant-free method without using any template. The morphology of the material was investigated by field-emission transmission electron microscopy and scanning electron microscopy. The crystal nature of the dendritic nanostructure was revealed from their X-ray diffraction and electron diffraction patterns. Effects of applied potential, electrolysis time, and the solution concentration were studied. The possible formation mechanism of the dendritic morphology was discussed from the aspects of kinetics and thermodynamics based on the experiment results. The H(2)O(2) electroreduction ability of the dendritic materials was characterized. Use of silver dendrite-modified electrode as H(2)O(2) sensor was also demonstrated.

Insight into the fabrication and perspective of dendritic Ag nanostructures

“…20 mm. Lower applied potential with longer deposition time led to successful formation of hierarchical Ag dendrites [79,82]. Also, a suitable applied current density is in favour of Ag dendrites synthesis under the same deposition time.…”

“…A higher concentration of Ag source resulted in a denser dendritic Ag. When the Ag + concentration is high enough that ions diffusion is not a limiting factor, Ag dendrites just agglomerate to polyhedral shapes [78][79][80]. The morphology of silver structures was found to be highly dependent on the electrolyte concentration.…”

l-Arginine-assisted electrochemical fabrication of hierarchical gold dendrites with improved electrocatalytic activity

“…(2) By prolonging the reaction time, the newly generated Au atoms will deposit on the original nuclei to form branched nanoparticles and several immature feather-like nanostructures. (3) The concentration of the L-arginine-AuCl 4 − complexes greatly decreases by extending the reaction time, and the crystal growth is mainly driven by diffusion-limited aggregation process, resulting in the oriented attachment along the (111) directions with the assistance of L-arginine to yield Au dendrites [27,[52][53][54].…”

Silver nanomaterials for the detection of chemical and biological targets

“…The large nanostructures, which have a domain size ranging around several micrometers, but has local nanostructured morphologies, were synthesized using various methods, such as electrochemistry, mixed solvents, mixed surfactants, ultrasonication, solid-based replacement reactions, microwave irradiation, and small organic molecules [80][81][82][83][84][85][86][87][88][89][90][91][92]. These structures, however, were mainly investigated with respect to their synthetic mechanisms and physical properties and have rarely demonstrated their useful applications.…”