Introduction
Introduction
Typically, the investigation of novel and functionalized materials has been of great
importance for the optimization and development of various technologies, for example,
based on electrical,[2] optical,3 optoelectronic,[4] and the introduction of new
technologies, such as quantum technologies.[5 From such devices, one does not only
expect higher efficiencies, but access to the development of utterly new concepts, which
are strongly demanded by modern information processing, quantum or medical
technologies and sensing applications.
Novel materials or sophisticated material systems, which can be for instance used for
energy harvesting[16] or (quantum) light generation[17, 18] and light-based sensing,
[19, 20]
switchable surfaces,[21, 22] as well as for future logic devices,[23] have become
increasingly important due to their exotic properties, such as the class of 2D materials,
[24]
topological insulators[25, 26] or perovskites.[12, 27] To make best use of their features,
material engineering is targeted by the research community, which can lead to improved
device functionality and performance in optoelectronics (e.g., refs. [28-30]). However,
the understanding of material physics, the study of which allows insight to be gained
into optical and electrical properties of nanostructures systems, remains at the core of
ongoing endeavors to harness on any extraordinary material platform or quantum
structure. Ultimately, to make use of quantum materials and nanostructures,
nanotechnologies and devices need to be developed to lead them toward applications.
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Nano wires
A nanowire is a nanostructure, with the diameter of the order of a nanometre (10−9 metres). It can
also be defined as the ratio of the length to width being greater than 1000. Alternatively, nanowires
can be defined as structures that have a thickness or diameter constrained to tens of nanometers or
less and an unconstrained length. At these scales, quantum mechanical effects are important—
which coined the term "quantum wires". Many different types of nanowires exist, including
superconducting (e.g. YBCO[1]), metallic (e.g. Ni, Pt, Au, Ag), semiconducting (e.g. silicon nanowires
(SiNWs), InP, GaN) and insulating (e.g. SiO2, TiO2). Molecular nanowires are composed of repeating
molecular units either organic (e.g. DNA) or inorganic (e.g. Mo6S9−xIx). Wikipedia
Metallic nanowires
The fundamental properties of a material can dramatically change when its dimensions are
reduced nanometer scale. Metallic nanowires are one-dimensional nanostructures with
diameters that are typically in a range of 10-200 nm, and lengths in a range of 5-100 µm.
Metallic nanowires have many unique properties that are not seen in their bulk counterparts,
such as good thermal and electrical conductivity, high aspect ratio, low sheet resistance,
excellent optical transparency, etc [6]
In the past two decades, research into 1D metallic NWs has encouraged breakthrough
technologies in a variety of fields, including flexible transparent conductive films and
electrodes[7], conductive polymer nanocomposites[8], touch sensors[9], photovoltaic (PV)
cells[10], electrochromic devices (ECD), wearable optoelectronic devices, and thermal energy
storage (TES) . The rapid advancement in the frontier of metallic NW technologies, particularly
silver nanowires (AgNWs) and copper nanowires (CuNWs), has made them up-and-coming
candidates for next generation engineering materials. Meanwhile, many synthesis methods
have been developed to yield metallic NWs with uniform size at low cost thanks to the
developed characterization techniques[11].
Synthesis of nanowires
There are several method used for the synthesis metallic nanowires, which can be broadly
categorize as, hard templet method [1], seedless surfactant less synthesis method [2], seed
based synthesis method [3], self-seeding polyol process [4] micro-wave polyol method [5],
solvothermal method [6], one-step low temperature synthesis [7], polyol process
[8] etc. Among these, the polyol technique is one of the best method compared to other chemical
methods as it is low cost and simple and provides high yield. The polyol method was first used by Xia et
al. [9] the polyol process for the large-scale synthesis of uniform silver
nanowires. It involved the reduction of silver nitrate by ethylene glycol in the
presence of poly(vinyl pyrrolidone) (PVP). The key to the formation of uniform
silver nanowires was believed to be the use of PVP as a polymer capping
reagent and the introduction of a seeding step. When silver nitrate was reduced
in the presence of seeds (Ag particles of a few nanometers), silver nanoparticles
with a bimodal size distribution were generated in the reaction mixture via
heterogeneous and homogeneous nucleation processes, In the early stage of the
ripening process, many larger silver particles could be directed to grow into
nanorods with uniform diameters, which could then grow continuously into
uniform nanowires of up to 50-70 μm in length[10]. As the AgNWs were
successfully synthesized they are deposited on the different substrate in the form
of network using spray coating [11], drop-casting , spin-coating , spray deposition, dry-
transfer, Meyer rod coating [12] etc. as the optimized AgNws network was obtained, different
devices like solar cell, electromagnetic shielding, light emitting diode, pressure sensors, transparent
heaters may fabricated.
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