Beyond spheres: Murphy's silver nanorods and nanowires.

In this viewpoint we discuss the early work of Murphy et al. on the colloidal synthesis of silver nanorods and nanowires, which represents a milestone in the controllable synthesis of anisotropic metal nanoparticles. We present here an overview of the impact of this pioneering work on the later drastic development of solution phase synthesis of shape-controlled metal nanostructures.