Non-epitaxial silver nanodendrite growth via helical nano-yarn bundling at intra-dendrite interface under applied bias

Silver nanodendrite has gained the interest of scholars because of its broad range of applications for its unique features. The growth of nanodendrites typically takes place at the epitaxial intra-dendrite interface between the single-crystal primary and secondary dendrites. In this paper, we reported for the first time a newly identified “non-epitaxial” intra-dendrite interface in silver nanodendrites. The silver nanodendrites were fabricated using a water drop electrodeposition method to induce electrochemical migration in pure water solution under applied bias. The non-epitaxial intra-dendrite interface featured a peculiar 3–5 nm helical nano-yarn structure which can support the growth of a high-volume secondary dendrite due to its interfacial strengthening characteristic. The volume or mass supported through the non-epitaxial intra-dendrite interface was 282 times greater than the one through the typical epitaxial one. This study is believed to give new understandings of the non-epitaxial dendrite growth via nano-yarn bundling and its strengthening mechanism.