A novel electrochemical synthesis route for copper nanowire formation

Abstract

We present an alternative electrochemical synthesis process of copper nanowires from aqueous solution. The common widespread methods for the fabrication of copper nanowires suffer a number of drawbacks such as the complexity of procedures steps, the resulting nanowires usually are of short length and have a nonlinear morphology. We address these shortcomings with a one-step method that allows preparing copper nanowires fast and with a high surface-to-volume ratio. The grown nanowires are already connected to the electrodes without further processing. We found that the nanowires diameter can be controlled by the frequency of the applied alternating voltage. Furthermore, we analyze the influence of the electric field profile on the morphology of the nanowires. Using an optimized protocol we are able to grow copper nanowires with a diameter of 100 nm and a length of up to several micrometers that exhibited ohmic behavior. Future uses of the nanowires after their oxidation are sensor applications, particularly gas sensors.