Microwave-controlled ultrafast synthesis of uniform silver nanocubes and nanowires

Synthesis of well-defined silver nanostructure in terms of size and shape has been strongly motivated by the requirements to their size- and shape-dependent optical properties which achieve their practical applications ranging from biosensing to catalysis and optics. In this Letter, an ultrafast synthetic process for the well-defined Ag nanocubes and nanowires have been developed, which simply involve the microwave-mediated polyol reduction of silver nitrate in ethylene glycol by adding different amount sodium sulfide (Na₂S) into the solution. The possible growth and evolution process of the Ag nanocubes and nanowires involves the microwave ultrafast nucleation and growth followed by oxidative etching of Ag nanocrystals.