Nature factory of silver nanowires: Plant-mediated synthesis using broth of Cassia fistula leaf

In this paper, we demonstrated a green protocol in which silver nanowires with diameters in the range of 50-60 nm and lengths up to tens of micrometers were synthesized with extract of the Cassia fistula leaf as reductant and capping agent at room temperature. Different techniques such as scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), selected area electron diffraction (SAED), high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM). X-ray diffraction (XRD) and UV-vis spectroscopy were employed to characterize the nanowires. Particularly. TEM images recorded at intervals revealed that the resulting silver nanowires evolved from spherical nanoparticles via one-dimensional aggregation. The results also showed that reaction temperature played a crucial role in the formation of silver nanowires. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.