Large-Scale Synthesis of High-Purity Silver Nanowires with Reduced Diameters by the Polyethylene Glycol-Assisted Polyol Method

Currently, ultra-thin silver nanowires synthesized by nearly all protocols are typically accompanied with a great mount of byproducts, like silver nanoparticles, which may reduce the conductivity and transparency of the nanowire network. In this study, we report an improved polyol synthesis strategy to the mass production of silver nanowires almost without any contaminations of silver nanoparticles. The high-quality silver nanowires with the diameter below 25 nm were synthesized at a low temperature, that is, 120 °C, using ethylene glycol and polyethylene glycol as dual reducing agents. The yield of silver nanowires was up to a high value, that is, ∼95%. The key advance of this method is that, for the first time, polyethylene glycol was introduced in the improved polyol approach. The strong reducing power of polyethylene glycol allows silver precursors to be quickly reduced into small silver nuclei, then uniaxially grows into fine silver nanowires with quite few byproducts.