Rapid Synthesis of Silver Nanowires and Network Structures under Cuprous Oxide Nanospheres and Application in Surface-Enhanced Raman Scattering

Abstract

Crystalline silver nanowires, with diameters of 50−500 nm and lengths up to tens of micrometers, have been successfully synthesized by a simple wet chemical route by using cuprous oxide nanospheres as a reductant and directional agent. The products are characterized by powder X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, high-resolution transmission electron microscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, and UV−vis absorption spectroscopy. The two-dimensional netlike nanostructure is composed of several silver nanowires. The possible mechanism for the formation of silver nanowires is discussed. It is found that the architecture of silver crystals is drastically influenced by the concentration of the precursors and the reaction temperature. The experimental results reveal that the Cu 2 O nanospheres might play the two roles during the growth process of silver nanowires. Except for a reducing agent, Cu 2 O nanospheres act as a growth substrate to induce the formation of silver nanowires and a two-dimensional netlike nanostructure. Furthermore, the obtained two-dimensional netlike silver nanostructure can be used as surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) substrates with high SERS activity and stability for detecting Rhodamine 6G (R6G) molecules. The analytical enhancement factor on the two-dimensional netlike silver nanostructure substrate is about 8 × 10 10 . Compared with other morphologies of silver substrates, it is found that the twodimensional netlike silver nanowires exhibit the highest SERS sensitivity. Hence, SERS substrates of the two-dimensional netlike silver nanowires described in this work have potential applications in chemical and biological analysis as well as medical detection.

Facet‐Controlled Synthetic Strategy of Cu2O‐Based Crystals for Catalysis and Sensing

“…In this context, the inexpensive, non‐toxic and abundantly available Cu 2 O nanomaterials, with unique optical and electrical properties, have recently aroused general attention, due to their outstanding morphology‐dependent applications in catalysis (gas oxidation, CO 2 reduction, organocatalysis, electrocatalysis, and photocatalysis, sensing (gas sensors, ion detection, and surface‐enhanced Raman scattering (SERS), as adsorbents, biotoxicity, as chemical templates and energy‐related processes (water splitting, solar energy conversion and lithium‐ion batteries. Compared to Cu 2 O nanowires or nanorods, nanospheres, hollow structures, self‐assembled superstructures, and Cu 2 O polyhedra enclosed by high‐index planes, the preparatio...…”

High-yield synthesis of silver nanowires for transparent conducting PET films

“…In order to synthesize silver nanowires several methods have been successfully developed, including ultraviolet irradiation, salt-free solution-based, salt-mediated solution-based, photo reduction, hydrothermal, wet-chemical, template reduction (hard and soft templates), and ultrasonic reduction methods [17][18][19][20][21][22]. Lithographic and hard template methods are used to prepare silver nanowires with well-defined dimensions but both methods produce polycrystalline silver nanowires with rough surface, triggering significant scattering and reducing length propagation, thus affecting the optical properties [23].…”

Highly Ordered Arrays of Silver Nanowires for Transparent Conducting PET Film

“…In order to synthesis silver nanowires several methods have been successfully developed including ultra-violet irradiation, salt-free solution-based, salt-mediated solution-based, photo reduction, hydrothermal, wet-chemical, template reduction (hard and soft templates) and ultrasonic reduction methods [15][16][17][18][19][20]. Lithographic and hard template methods are used to prepare silver nanowires with well-defined dimensions but, both these methods produce polycrystalline silver nanowires with rough surfaces triggering significant scattering and reducing length propagation, thus affecting the optical properties [21].…”