A one-step route to Ag nanowires with a diameter below 40 nm and an aspect ratio above 1000.

The synthesis of long and thin Ag nanowires is important to achieve high performance transparent conductive films. We report a one-step route to synthesizing Ag nanowires with an average diameter of ∼25 nm and an aspect ratio larger than 1000 by utilizing a mixture of poly(vinylpyrrolidone) with different molecular weights as the capping agent in a polyol reduction reaction.