Morphology control of Ag-Te nanostructures by seed silver nanoparticles

We report on simple fabrication of silver (Ag) nanoparticles and room-temperature growth of silver telluride (Ag-Te) nanowires and novel nanostructures using the Ag nanoparticles as the seed. Size-controlled Ag nanoparticles are formed by thermal annealing of a thin Ag film. For example, a 4 nm thick Ag film is transformed into small and uniform Ag nanoparticles with average diameter of 7 nm and the standard deviation of 2 nm. Room temperature deposition of tellurium onto the Ag nanoparticles produces Ag-Te nanoparticles, nanowires and snail-like nanostructures, depending on the diameter of the Ag nanoparticles. We find that the diameter of seed Ag nanoparticles is the critical growth parameter for the formation of different Ag-Te nanostructures.