Synthesis and characterization of polyoxometalate nanowires based on a novel microemulsion process

A novel microemulsion process was introduced for the large-scale synthesis of uniform Ag4SiW12O40 nanowires with an average diameter of about 8?nm and length of up to 10??m. The ageing time of the reaction mixture played an important role in controlling the morphology of the products, and the interaction between ethanol and AOT (sodium bis-(2-ethyexylsulfosuccinate)) can be used to illustrate the formation of the nanowires. The products were characterized by IR, TEM and XRD techniques.