Oriented attachment growth of ultra-long Ag2Se crystalline nanowires via water evaporation-induced self-assembly

Ultra-long Ag2Se crystalline nanowires with lengths up to several hundred micrometers and diameters of 100–300 nm have been successfully fabricated by water evaporation-induced growth method at 120 °C for 6 h. Experiments have revealed that the growth of Ag2Se crystalline nanowires is dominated by oriented attachment mechanism. The continuous water evaporation plays an important role for the formation of long nanowires, since it can cause high overall supersaturation and crystallite–solution interfacial supersaturation in the system, which can induce secondary nucleation, and thus promote the oriented attachment growth of long crystalline nanowires. Therefore, it is promising that the water evaporation-induced growth method could be developed for the synthesis of other 1D inorganic nanomaterials.