Synthesis of dendritic silver nanostructures by means of ultrasonic irradiation

In this paper, a simple and effective route for the synthesis of silver dendritic nanostructures by means of ultrasonic irradiation has been developed. Well-defined silver dendritic nanostructures were obtained by sonicating the aqueous solution of 0.04 mol/L silver nitrate with 4.0 mol/L isopropanol as reducing agent and 0.01 mol/L PEG400 as disperser for 2 h. The effects of the irradiation time, the concentration of Ag+ and the molar ratio of PEG to AgNO3 on the morphology of silver nanostructures were discussed. The structures of the obtained samples were characterized by transmission electron microscopy (TEM), selected area electron diffraction (SAED) and X-ray powder diffraction (XRD), and the chemical composition of the dendrites was examined by energy-dispersive X-ray spectrum (EDS).