Silver nanowires (AgNWs) combine high electrical conductivity with low light extinction in the visible and are used in a wide range of applications, from transparent electrodes, to temperature and pressure sensors. The most common strategy for the production of AgNWs is the polyol synthesis, which always leads to the formation of silver nanoparticles as byproducts. These nanoparticles degrade the performance of AgNWs' based devices and have to be eliminated by several purification steps. Here, we report a simple and fast synthesis of AgNWs with minimal formation of byproducts, as confirmed by the spectral purity of the final solution. Our synthetic strategy relies on the use of freshly prepared AgCl and on the minimization of gas evolution inside the reaction vessel. The observed synthetic improvements can be of general validity for the polyol synthesis of metallic nanostructures of different shapes and compositions.
Keywords: byproducts; metal halide; nitric acid; optical spectroscopy; polyol synthesis; silver nanowires.