Large-scale synthesis of single crystal silver nanowires by a sodium diphenylamine sulfonate reduction process

Silver nanowires with high aspect ratios of up to more than 60 were synthesized on a large scale by the redox reaction between silver nitrate and sodium diphenylamine sulfonate at room temperature and in the absence of surfactant and hard-template and seed. When the molar ratio of reductant sodium diphenylamine sulfonate and silver nitrate < or =1, most products were all the nanowires. When the molar ratio increases to 2:1, silver nanowires and nanobelts were concomitantly formed. The redox product N, N'-diphenylbenzidinedisulfonate and sodium diphenylamine sulfonate all play an important role in the formation of silver nanostructures. The structure, morphology, and composition of the silver nanowires were characterized by the X-ray powder diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray energy dispersive microanalysis (EDX), and UV-Vis spectroscopy respectively. High-resolution transmission microscopy (HRTEM) and selected area electron diffraction (SAED) reveal the single-crystal nature of the silver nanowires.