Sonochemical synthesis of silver nanorods by reduction of silver nitrate in aqueous solution.

The sonochemical synthesis of silver nanorods has been achieved by ultrasonic irradiation of the aqueous solution of silver nitrate, methenamine (HMTA) and poly (vinyl pyrrolidone) (PVP) for 60 min. The silver nanorods obtained have lengths of 4-7 microm and mean diameters of about 100 nm. The structures of the samples were characterized by transmission electron microscopy (TEM), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), selected area electron diffraction (SAED) and X-ray powder diffraction (XRD), and the chemical composition of the sample was examined by energy-dispersive X-ray spectrum (EDS). The effects of the irradiation time, the concentration of PVP and the reaction temperature on the morphology of silver nanorods were discussed, and the mechanism of the silver nanorods formation was tentatively inferred.