Synthesis and characterization of silver-platinum bimetallic nanowires and platinum nanotubes

A galvanic replacement reaction was used to prepare silver-platinum bimetallic nanowires and platinum nanotubes. Silver nanowires, prepared by boiling aqueous silver nitrate with sodium citrate in the presence of small amount of sodium hydroxide, were used as the sacrificial template in the galvanic reaction to prepare silver-platinum bimetallic nanowires and ultimately hollow platinum nanotubes. The resulting nanomaterials are stable and can be isolated without core aggregation or decomposition. These new materials have been characterized by transmission electron microscopy, energy dispersive X-ray analysis, and inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectroscopy.