Kinetic analysis of silver nanowire synthesis: polyol batch and continuous millifluidic methods.

This study investigates the variation in rate constants for nucleation and growth of silver nanowires (AgNWs) synthesized using the polyol method in batch and millifluidic flow reactors (MFRs). In a particular reactor, silver ion concentration at any time is quantified by the method of El-Ghamry and the non-linear two-step Finke-Watzky model is used to determine the rate constants for nucleation () and growth (). The results indicate that and for the MFRs are approximately four and two times larger, respectively, than the batch reactor rate constants.