High-Yield Synthesis of Uniform Ag Nanowires with High Aspect Ratios by Introducing the Long-Chain PVP in an Improved Polyol Process

Polyvinyl pyrrolidone (PVP) with different molecular weights was used as capping agent to synthesize silver nanowires through a polyol process. The results indicated that the yields and aspect ratios of silver nanowires were controlled by the chain length of PVP and increased with increasing the molecular weight (MW) of PVP. When the long-chain PVP-K90 (MW = 800,000) was used, the product was uniform in size and was dominated by nanowires with high aspect ratios. The growth mechanism of the nanowires was studied. It is proposed that the chemical adsorption of Ag + on the PVP chains at the initial stage promotes the growth of Ag nanowires.