A novel and facile wet-chemical method for synthesis of silver microwires

A novel and facile wet-chemical method for synthesis of silver microwires was developed. The well-defined particles were prepared by adding an iron (II) sulfate heptahydrate solution into a silver nitrate solution containing citric acid drop by drop at 50 °C. The resulting products were characterized by scanning electron microscopy and X-ray diffraction. It was found that the particles consisted of numerous silver microwires. The reaction temperature greatly affected the morphologies of the as-prepared particles. Both of the mean length and width of the silver microwires increased with the decrease of the concentration of silver nitrate. And the lower concentration was unfavorable for the formation of more silver microwires. Similar findings were also observed when the concentration of iron (II) sulfate was decreased. The amount of citric acid also greatly affected the shape of the as-prepared particles. It was concluded that citric acid was the key role in the formation of silver microwires via the Oswald ripening mechanism.