Silver Crown Particles with Multiwalled Carbon Nanotubes Skeletons

The types of metal-composite particles produced as a result of the chemical silvering of DEALTOM multiwalled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) dispersed in a solution are studied. A silver polycrystalline coating of the surface of MWCNTs is obtained by the adsorption method. A new property is discovered, namely the fusion of silver-plated nanotubes obtained in this way into crown particles and the ability to agglomerate into various macrostructures. Studying the Dealtom metallized MWCNT structure by means of the scanning electron microscope reveals the following types of metallization in the samples: lamellar silver crystals (0.1–3 μm) on few and single active centers of the MWCNT surface; a silver polycrystalline layer on the surface of the MWCNTs; a polycrystalline coating of each MWCNT in a coil of nanotubes with subsequent fusion into a single silver crown particle (1–10 μm); hybrid particles, which are lamellar crystals of silver on the polycrystalline silver surface of the crown particle; the fusion of two or more crown particles into a 1D chain and 2D carpet macrostructures. The synthesized hybrid particles with nanobranched pointed morphology are promising for use in surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) spectroscopy for determining ultra-low concentrations of substances as well as for analyzing biological objects.