Synthesis of silver nanostructures with controlled shapes and properties

Mastery over the shape of a nanostructure enables control over its properties and usefulness for a given application. By controlling the crystallinity of the seeds from which nanostructures grow and the rate of atomic addition to seeds, we selectively produced pentagonal nanowires, cuboctahedra, nanocubes, nanobars, bipyramids, and nanobeams of silver with a solution-phase polyol synthesis. The example of nanobars illustrates how the shape of a silver nanostructure affects the color of light that it scatters. We further show how silver nanowires and nanobeams can serve as conduits for both electrons and photons.