Time dependant evolution of silver nanodendrites

We report the synthesis of silver nanodendrites, with an elongated central backbone and distinguished branches. This method involves the reduction of silver nitrate with formamide using polyvinyl pyrrolidone as the surfactant. The evolution of the dendritic nanostructures after 30 days was due to the variation of the concentration of the reactants. At low PVP concentration isotropic silver nanoparticles are visible in the transmission electron microscopy (TEM) images. As the concentration is increased anisotropic particles are observed with the appearance of dendrites at the highest concentration. The morphological evolution is confirmed by the optical measurements.