Ultrafast Growth of Large 2D Silver Nanosheets by Highly Ordered Biological Template at Air/Gel Interface

The growth of large and high-quality 2D nanomaterials is challenging due to the formation of defects from dislocations, disinclinations, and symmetry-breaking instabilities. In this study it is demonstrated that biological template can be utilized to align the molecular orientation for large grain size in the synthesis of the high-quality 2D silver nanostructure. The solvent assisted multilayering phenomenon of hydrogel forms biological template at the air/gel interface and supports the silver salts to grow laterally and largely in a 2D manner between the scaffold layers with a nominal thickness of 4.4 ± 0.3 nm. This solution-based deposition mechanism is demonstrated based on droplet, spin-coating, and electrohydrodynamic jet printing schemes for robust and flexible conductive thin films or patterns.