Single Crystalline Cadmium Sulfide Nanowires with Branched Structure

In this article, we report the synthesis of branched single crystal CdS nanowires. This branched CdS nanostructure is prepared by a simple surfactant-directing method, which is of particular interest as it uses readily available reagents and provides a convenient route to high-yield single crystal nanowires but with branched shape. These branched nanowires have an average diameter of about 40 nm and length up to several micrometers. A possible mechanism has been proposed and the addition of surfactant dodecylthiol into the two mixed-solvents would play an importance effect on the structure of the product. Based on the mechanism, by controlling the synthesis conditions, such as the ratios between the surfactant, inorganic solvent, and organic solvent, other kinds of nanostructures based on CdS nanowires were also prepared. Photoluminescence (PL) measurement reveals that the branched CdS nanowires have a strong emission at about 700 nm which might be due to its special structure

Micelle assisted morphological evolution of silver nanoparticles

Silver nanocrystals are prepared in size and shape selective anionic micelles comprising the surfactant, sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS). Rod-like micelles of variable lengths were obtained by the addition of a hydrophobic salt, anilinium nitrate that adsorbs on the surface of the micelles thereby modifying its morphology. In this report, we investigate the effect of key parameters of the micelles namely, size and shape of the micelles on the morphology of silver nanocrystals formed. The axial ratio of the rod-like micelles was estimated from dynamic light scattering (DLS) measurements and the resulting silver particles, synthesized in the micellar medium, were characterized by optical absorption, DLS and transmission electron microscopy (TEM).© Elsevie