Polyelectrolyte mediated scalable synthesis of highly stable silver nanocubes in less than a minute using microwave irradiation.

Silver nanocubes were synthesized for the first time in large quantities on gold seed in the presence of a polyelectrolyte using microwave heating for 60-120 s. Our experiment indicates that the polyelectrolyte directs the growth of the particle in a specified crystallographic direction resulting in the faceted particle, i.e. a nanocube. The nanocubes are stable for at least 2 months in ambient conditions.