A Simple Synthetic Approach to Prepare Silver Elongated Nanostructures: From Nanorods to Nanowires

A procedure for one-pot preparation and characterization of silver 1D nanostructures is described. The main advantages of this synthetic approach are the simplicity and reproducibility, where the size of the final product can be controlled just by changing the reaction time. This experiment is designed as a laboratory introduction to colloidal chemistry for undergraduate and graduate students; they can appreciate the role of the different reagents in a relatively complex reaction and understand the relation between the morphology of a metal at the nanoscale and some macroscopic properties, such as its visible absorption spectrum (i.e., color).