Dose of vitamin C helps gold nanowires grow

Rice University scientists produce valuable nanowires from short particles without the bulk
A boost of vitamin C helped Rice University scientists turn small gold nanorods into fine gold nanowires. Common, mild ascorbic acid is the not-so-secret sauce that helped the Rice lab of chemist Eugene Zubarev grow pure batches of nanowires from stumpy nanorods without the drawbacks of previous techniques.

Gold nanowires grown in the Rice University lab of chemist Eugene Zubarev promise to provide tunable plasmonic properties for optical and electronic applications. The wires can be controllably grown from nanorods, or reduced. Courtesy of the Zubarev Research Group