Growth of Au/Ag nanowires in thin surfactant solution films: An electron microscopy study

The surfactant templated gold–silver nanowire growth process in a thin solution film was probed by cryo-transmission electron microscopy (cryo-TEM). The increasing surfactant concentration upon film drying appears to induce phase transformations in the film and form a liquid crystalline template for the nanowires growth. High-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM) and electron holography revealed that the nanowires were polycrystalline with some preferred crystallite orientations and had a roughly cylindrical cross-section. Further improvement of the technique may lead to highly ordered metal nanowire arrays within the surfactant matrix similar to the closely related mesoporous materials. Cryo-transmission electron microscopy and other microscopy techniques were used to study the formation of gold–silver nanowires in a surfactant template during the drying of thin surfactant solution films.