Method of growing nanostructured single crystal silver on active carbon

Abstract

A method of preparing nanostructured single crystal silver, comprising placing a high-conductive molded porous active carbon containing chloride ions, which has been reductively treated, into a silver-containing precursor solution. After several hours at room temperature, the nanostructured single crystal silver grows on the surface of the active carbon. The silver-containing precursors and appropriate amount of chlorine provide a crystal nucleus and a slow stable crystal growth environment which are required for single crystal silver growth, and said nanostructured silver single crystals could be obtained with various morphologies by controlling the concentration of the silver-containing precursor solution and the growth time. The method of the invention is an environmentally friendly synthesis method with the nanostructured single crystal silver grows on the surface of the molded porous active carbon at room temperature, which is pollution-free and does not need any additives.