A Facile, Water-Based Synthesis of Highly Branched Nanostructures of Silver

We report a facile and environmentally friendly method of preparing highly branched silver nanostructures. By reducing AgNO3 with L-ascorbic acid in an aqueous solution, silver particles having a coral-like morphology were formed in a few minutes. A mechanistic study of the growth process revealed that the silver branches grew from a bulbous seed formed through aggregation, and that by changing the concentrations of the reagents, the degree of particle branching could be altered. With their potentially high surface areas, these branched structures could find use as catalysts or as substrates for surface-enhanced Raman scattering applications.