Preparation of a Silver Nanowire Transparent Conduc-

tive Film†
Noor Natasha Binti Riedzuan, Ambrose Mac-Fall, Meryem Lamari, Jieming Zhang,
Kaiqian Lu, Ines Diaz-Tejeiro Rodriguez, Muhammad Mubashir Raza, Yao Lu, Liwei
Dai, Yuanyu Gan, Shiqi Gan and Seif Mehanna

Silver nanowires were synthesised using the polyol process with ethylene glycol, silver nitrate,
polyvinylpropylodine (PVP) and iron (III) chloride as the starting materials. Parameters such as
the amount of iron (III) chloride and the temperature with respect to reaction time were studied to
successfully obtain silver nanowires with less than 500Ω and a good transmission of more than
80% of visible light at 550nm. The resistance and transmittance correlates to the length and di-
ameter of the nanowires. Hence, the goal was to find a balance between these two variables
to achieve the best nanowires that fit the optoelectronic needs required by industry. A few other
parameters that were tested such as the amount of silver nitrate and the stirring rate gave incon-
clusive results due to the limited time and facilities available. There is a strong correlation between
the parameters focused on in this experiment and the morphology of the nanowires which were
observed using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and visible light microscopy (VLM). The re-
sults reported in this paper provide the steps to synthesise nanowires to the desired scale of the
reader using the relationship shown in changing the variables.

0.1 Introduction
Flexible electronics have certain advantages over their conven-
tional rigid-substrate counterparts that can change main-stream
applications in a very extensive way. (1) Some of the very advan-
tages are its low-cost, ruggedness, light weight, unconventional
form factors and ease of manufacturability. Transparent and con-
ductive materials are being synthesised to be used as conductive
components in touch screens, portable solar cells, fuel cell elec-
trodes, sensors, wearable electronics and organic LEDs. (2) These
components have the ability to bend, stretch, compress, twist and
deform into complex, non-planar shapes while still maintaining
its functionality to a great degree.
One-dimensional (1D) nanostructures have been grabbing the
attention of researcher for decades due to their distinct electrical,
optical, magnetic and thermal properties as compared to their
bulkier structures. It has been known that silver (Ag) has the
highest electrical and thermal conductivity among all metals. (3)
Hence, its nanostructures have received considerable attention.
Its relatively cheap and has become the most widely used steriliz-
ing nanomaterial in consuming and medical products. (3)
There are many ways to synthesise silver nanomaterials to al-
low for both conductivity and transparency. The desired structure
is to make silver nanowires which show impressive conductivity
even at nanoscale levels of thinness. Nanowires can be made
through many methods that include chemical synthesis, electro-
chemical technique, hydrothermal method, ultraviolet irradiation
photodetection technique, DNA template, porous materials tem-
plate and polyol process. (4) When terms of cost, yield and sim-
plicity are considered, the polyol process seems to be a very good
choice.
This has motivated researchers to explore different approaches
in order to improve the polyol process. There is a need in industry
to grow these nanowires in a controlled and uniform manner with
larger aspect ratios. We need to understand how each change
brings in different properties in the nanowires. Hence, in this
work, we have done a substantial parametric study on the polyol
synthesis of Ag nanowires. We have focused on examining effects
on temperature with respect to reaction time and iron (III) chlo-
ride amount to the resistance and transparency of the nanowire
film. Other parameters that were tested gave inconclusive results
due to the lack of nanowires formed to test resistance.
0.2 Methods
The experiment was performed by referring to a research paper
titled ’Facile Synthesis of Very-long Silver Nanowires for Trans-
parent Electrodes’. The method used to synthesise the nanowires
were polyol synthesis.
Firstly, 0.2 g of PVP (MW = 360 000) was added to 25 mL
of ethylene glycol (EG) and completely dissolved using a Stuart
UC152D magnetic stirrer at room temperature. 0.25 g of silver

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nitrate (AgNO3 ) was then added to the PVP solution and stirred
till complete dissolution. Finally, 3.5 g of a FeCl3 salt solution
(600 mM in EG) was poured into the mixture and stirred for two
minutes. The mixture was placed immediately to a hot plate pre-
heated at 130◦ C to grow the silver nanowires for 120 minutes.
Acetone and ethanol were used to wash the precipitate at 25 mL
each time with centrifugation of 700 rpm for 5 minutes done 4
times with a Rotofix 32A Hettich centrifuge.
Several parameters were tested to find a trend in the resistivity
and transparency of the nanowires. The parameters tested were
temperature during the synthesis process with reaction time in
mind, concentration of FeCl3 and PVP to AgNO3 ratio.
Before setting the mixture on the hot plates, the tempera-
tures were pre-heated to 110◦ C, 120◦ C, 130◦ C, 140◦ C, 150◦ C
and 160◦ C for six different nanowire mixtures. All other steps
were kept the same. In another synthesis, the temperature was
then kept to 130◦ C while the reaction time was varied from 120
minutes to 180 minutes. Fig. 1 The SEM images of the AgNWs synthesised at (a)130, (b)160◦ C.
All scales are the same. Changes in length (c) and diameter (d) are
For the next parameter, the FeCl3 were changed to be 5.04 mL, shown as well.
5.67 mL, 6.30 mL, 6.93 mL, 7.56 mL and 8.19 mL in six different
conical flasks.
The sample was drop coated onto the entire slide. The number had the best results. Again, ImageJ was used to get the data from
of drops were 14 in order to get a uniform surface. the SEM images given.
All the nanowires obtained were tested using the Thermo Sci- It can be deduced that at 130◦ C for a duration of 180 min-
entific Evolution 160 UV-VIS to get the transparency reading and utes, the nanowires seem to grow at the desired shape. There is
then tested using the Agilent U1241B multimeter to find resis- a balance between the temperature and the reaction time to pro-
tance. The slides were then sent to be observed using the VLM. duce long and wide nanowires. A longer reaction time than what
One drop of each quality sample were dropped onto the SEM was done in the experiment seems to encourage longer and wider
specimen stubs the SEM studies were performed on the JSM6400 wires, regardless of the temperature.
SEM at 20kV. The images captured using secondary electron
imaging were saved into the fileshare.
The samples were then disposed of properly into the chemical
waste bin.

0.3 Results and Discussions

0.3.1 Temperature and Reaction time
The SEM images of Ag nanowires synthesised are shown in Figure
1. The length and diameter of the nanowires were measured us-
ing the program ImageJ. The measurements were taken 10 times
for the length and 5 times for the diameter. The results were
recorded in a table and a graph was plotted in Figure 1. The
error bars included come from the standard deviation of the mea-
surements taken.
Fig. 2 The length of the AgNWs are plotted against the diameter to
The higher the temperature, the longer the wires grow. How- identify the parameters which yield the longest and thickest wires. The
ever, the wire becomes thinner as the temperature increases. This highest and furthest point shows this.
makes it difficult to acquire long and wide cross sectional wires
for better conductivity. This suggests that the low temperature The UV-Vis measurements are shown in Figure 3 to observe
did not provide sufficient energy to activate the planes neces- how it performs optically. The higher the transmittance, the more
sary for anisotropic growth of the nanowires. (4) This also sug- transparent the nanowires are.
gests that there is something aiding the rapid growth of the silver There seems to be no trend shown on the UV-Vis measurement
nanowires. Due to the fact that the reducing power of ethylene of the nanowires. This could be likely due to the inconsistency of
glycol increases with temperature, it can be concluded that this is the drop coating of the sample. The thickness and area of films
the cause for the longer wire growth at higher temperatures. (4) varied too much to obtain conclusive results on the transmittance.
The length was then plotted against the diameter for samples This also shows the same for the resistance of the nanowires. Due
with given temperature and reaction time to see which sample to the uneven areas and thickness during point of contact, the

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Fig. 3 The UV-Vis measurements are shown for the different temper-
atures all at same reaction times. The transmittance was taken from a
range of 450 nm to 650 nm which is about the wavelength of visible light.
results were inconclusive.
0.3.2 Amount of FeCl3
The SEM images of Ag nanowires synthesised with varying FeCl3
are shown in Figure 4. The length and diameter of the nanowires
were measured using the program ImageJ. The measurements
were taken 10 times for the length and 5 times for the diame-
ter. The results were recorded in a table and a graph was plotted
in Figure 1. The error bars included come from the standard de-
viation of the measurements taken.
Fig. 4 The SEM images of the AgNWs synthesised at (a)8.19 mL,
(b)5.04 mL. All scales are the same. Changes in length (c) and diam-
eter (d) are shown as well.
There seems to be more nanowires in (a) compared to (b).
The diameter of the wires also seem to increase so much more
compared to the lower concentrations of FeCl3 . The absence of
FeCl3 is important to determine the final morphology of the sil-
ver nanowires. This prevents them from aggregation. Too much
however could make the chloride ions react with the silver itself
and therefore undoing the synthesis. Hence, a balance should be
acquired to prevent other reactions for happening simultaneously.
(4)
The resistance seems to peak at around 6 mL of the FeCl3 .
This further proves that a balance is necessary to produce the
Fig. 5 The resistance of the sample is shown.
nanowires.
1 Conclusions
The strongest conclusion that can be made from this experiment
is that the higher the temperature, the longer the wires grow.
However, the wire becomes thinner as the temperature increases.
Synthesis of silver nanowires are very specific and require a lot of
detail. The precision of each parameter is necessary to produce
industrial grade products.
The amount of FeCl3 also is shown to have a correlation to
the shape of the nanowires itself. The more FeCl3 added, the
wider and longer they become. However, there is a limit as the
resistance start to increase again at a certain point.
Notes and References
(1) William S.,S. Alberto, 2009, ’Flexible Electronics: Materials
and Applications’,Springer Publishing Company, Incorporated
(2) Li, W. R.; Xie, X. B.; Shi, Q. S.;, Zeng, H. Y.;, Ou-Yang, Y. S.;
Chen, Y. B. Appl Microbiol Biotechnol. 2010, 85(4), 1115-22
(3) Lubick, N. Environ. Sci. Technol., 2008, 42 (23), p 8617
(4) Pei Zhang, Ian Wyman, Jiwen Hu, 2017, ’Silver nanowires:
Synthesis technologies, growth mechanism and multifunctional
applications’, Guangzhou Institute of Chemistry
(5) J. Jiu, T. Araki, J. Wang, M. Nogi, T. Sugahara, S. Nagao, H.
Koga, K. Suganuma, E. Nakazawa, M. Hara, H. Uchidab and K.
Shinozakic, 2014,’Facile Synthesis of Very-Long Silver Nanowires
for Transparent Electrodes’, Journal of Materials Chemistry, Royal
Society of Chemistry
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