A facile templateless, surfactantless hydrothermal route to ultralong copper submicron wires

Ultralong copper submicron wires has been fabricated by a facile hydrothermal route under templateless and surfactantless conditions. Vitamin C served as both the reductant and capping agent that can direct the growth of copper submicron wires. The crystallinity, purity, morphology, and structure features of copper submicron wires were investigated by powder X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy and selected area electron diffraction (TEM/SAED). The growth mechanism of the copper submicron wires was studied in detail.