Production of nanostructures

1. A method of producing nanowires, comprising:

energizing

(i) a metal-containing reagent;

(ii) a templating agent;

(iii) a reducing agent; and

(iv) a seed-promoting agent (SPA)

in a reaction medium and under conditions of a first temperature for at least a portion of a first duration, followed by a second temperature for at least a portion of a second duration, and the second temperature is different from the first temperature, wherein:

the reaction medium includes an alcohol including at least three hydroxyl groups per molecule,

the first temperature is less than 85° C.,

the second temperature is less than 105° C. and is greater than the first temperature,

the metal-containing reagent is silver nitrate,

the templating agent is poly(vinylpyrrolidone),

the reducing agent is an oxidized derivative of the alcohol,

the SPA is sodium chloride, and

an overall concentration of silver in the reaction medium, including ionic and elemental metal forms, is less than 0.1 molar.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the alcohol is glycerol.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the templating agent is in a solid or semi-solid form when combined with the metal-containing reagent.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein:

the SPA is a first SPA, and

the energizing further includes energizing a second SPA that is a source of nitrate anions different from silver nitrate.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first temperature is at least 40° C., and the second duration is longer than the first duration.