Growth of Au/Ag nanowires in thin surfactant solution films: an electron microscopy study.
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.
Krichevski
Olga
O
School of Chemistry, Raymond and Beverly Sackler Faculty of Exact Sciences, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv 69978, Israel.
Levi-Kalisman
Yael
Y
Szwarcman
Daniel
D
Lereah
Yossi
Y
Markovich
Gil
G