Growth of Electrodeposited Ag Nanowires in Anionic Surfactant Nanotemplates on Au(111)

Ordered molecular systems should provide templates of molecular dimensions as demonstrated by the growth of silver nanostructures in the potential induced nanotemplates of SDS (sodium dodecyl sulfate). Electrochemical STM (Scanning Tunneling Microscopy) results suggest that SDS molecules form hemicylinders on the Au(111) surface in 0.1M HClO$_{4}$ solution. The hydrophilic sulfate groups self-assemble to face to the aqueous interface while the hydrophobic backbone adopts a tail to tail configuration. The SDS hemicylinders structures are stable over the potential range of -0.1 V$_{SCE}$ to 0.4 V$_{SCE}$. Silver electrodeposition takes place near the hydrophilic sulfate head, and leads to the formation of nanowires that grow in the same direction as the SDS hemicylinders. Ag nanowires are typically less than 2 nm wide.