title: Growth of Au/Ag nanowires in thin surfactant solution films: an electron microscopy study.
abstract: The surfactant templated gold-silver nanowire growth process in a thin solution film was probed by cryo-transmission electron microscopy (cryo-TEM). The increasing surfactant concentration upon film drying appears to induce phase transformations in the film and form a liquid crystalline template for the nanowires growth. High-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM) and electron holography revealed that the nanowires were polycrystalline with some preferred crystallite orientations and had a roughly cylindrical cross-section. Further improvement of the technique may lead to highly ordered metal nanowire arrays within the surfactant matrix similar to the closely related mesoporous materials.
authors.affiliation: School of Chemistry, Raymond and Beverly Sackler Faculty of Exact Sciences, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv 69978, Israel.
authors.forename: Olga
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Krichevski
authors.forename: Yael
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Levi-Kalisman
authors.forename: Daniel
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Szwarcman
authors.forename: Yossi
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Lereah
authors.forename: Gil
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Markovich