Morphology-Controlled Green Synthesis of Single Crystalline Silver Dendrites, Dendritic Flowers, and Rods, and Their Growth Mechanism

Various single-crystalline Ag nanostructures including dendrites, dendritic flowers, and cactus-like rods have been successfully synthesized in high yield through a simple, facile, cost-effective method based on the galvanic replacement reaction. The products were characterized by X-ray powder diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), high-resolution TEM (HRTEM), and energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX). The morphology and structure of Ag products can be well controlled by tuning the concentrations of Ag metal salt precursor. Through a series of time-dependent morphological evolution studies, the growth processes of Ag nanostructures have been systematically investigated and the corresponding growth mechanisms have been discussed.