Rapid synthesis of long silver nanowires by controlling concentration of Cu2+ ions

Long silver nanowires (AgNWs) with mean length of 49.4 µm were synthesized by a rapid one-step polyol method within only 30 min. The relationship between Cu2+ and the size of AgNWs had been studied. AgNWs were longer at higher concentration of Cu2+ because the presence of Cu+ (reduced from Cu2+) could increase the absorption rate of silver atoms (Ag0). By simply controlling the concentration of Cu2+ in reaction process, the diameter of AgNWs ranging from 31 nm to 57 nm could also be adjusted. This rapid method improved the production efficiency of long AgNWs and could be applied to high performance transparent electrodes.