Growth Mechanism and Electrical and Magnetic Properties of Ag-Fe3O4 Core-Shell Nanowires

One-dimensional AgFe3O4 coreshell heteronanowires have been synthesized by a facile and effective coprecipitation method, in which silver nanowires (AgNWs) were used as the nucleation site for growth of Fe3O4 in aqueous solution. The size and morphology control of the coreshell nanowires were achieved by simple adjustments of reaction conditions including FeCl3/FeCl2 concentration, poly(vinylpyrrolidone) (PVP) concentration, reaction temperature, and time. It was found that the Fe3O4 shell thickness could be tuned from 6 to 76 nm with the morphology variation between nanopheres and nanorods. A possible growth mechanism of AgFe3O4 core-shell nanowires was proposed. First, the C=O derived from PVP on the surface of AgNWs provided nucleation points and in situ oxidation reaction between AgNWs and FeCl3/FeCl2 solution promoted the accumulation of Fe3+ and Fe2+ on the AgNWs surface. Second, Fe3O4 nanoparticles nucleated on the AgNWs surface. Lastly, Fe3O4 nanoparticles grew on the AgNWs surface by using up the reagents. Higher FeCl3/FeCl2 concentration or higher temperature led to faster nucleation and growth, resulting in the formation of Fe3O4 nanorods, whereas lower concentration or lower temperature resulted in slower nucleation and growth, leading to the formation of Fe3O4 nanospheres. Furthermore, the AgFe3O4 coreshell nanowires exhibited good electrical properties and ferromagnetic properties at room temperature. Particularly, the magnetic saturation values (M-s) increased from 5.7 to 26.4 emu g(-1) with increasing Fe3O4 shell thickness from 9 to 76 nm. This growth of magnetic nanoparticles on 1D metal nanowires is meaningful from both fundamental and applied perspectives.