Synthesis of silver nanowire arrays by thermal decomposition of silver acetate.

Rapid progress in nanotechnology has made it increasingly easier to nanostructure metal materials. This paper describes the formation of uniform silver nanowires by reducing silver acetate with PLLA polymer. The silver nanowires were prepared by wetting a porous template at 350 °C using 1.5 wt.% CH₂Cl₂ solution containing PLLA/silver acetate in a ratio of 1:1. A thermal analysis in the temperature range of 100 °C to 400 °C was carried out by a differential scanning calorimeter (DSC). An exothermic reaction peak associated with pure silver occurred at 352 °C at a heating rate of 5 °C/min. From the attenuated total reflectance (ATR) spectra analysis of the silver and PLLA composites, it was obtained that the absorption peak of the PLLA became weak by heating to successively higher temperatures in the range of 230 °C to 350 °C. The DSC and ATR results showed that the PLLA can be directly and easily removed at 350 °C, leaving the pure metal inside the pores. The silver nanowires consisted of nanoparticles whose average diameter was about 26.5 nm. And those nanowires with an aspect ratio of about 13 showed an UV-vis absorption peak, which is attributed to the surface plasmon excitation at 350 nm and 377 nm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]