Abstract: Electroless chemical deposition instead of electrochemical deposition was adopted to prepare copper nanowires in that electroless chemical deposition neither has to sputter a layer of gold as cathode on one side of the through-hole template nor supplies power to complete the synthesis of nanowires. The effect of sensitizing solution and deposition time on the preparation of copper nanowires was discussed. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and X-ray diffraction (XRD) were applied to observe the morphologies of the samples. The experimental results showed that nanoparticles were firstly formed in the process of deposition， and then they gradually merged to form nanotubes and nanowires with the increase of deposition time. The copper nanowires prepared by electroless chemical deposition were multi-crystal structures. In the templateless case， the copper atoms grew to form petal-like structures by autocatalysis. The sensitizing solution diluted with 95% ethanol was more stable than that with water， but it was less likely to form nanowires compared to the sensitizing solution with water in about the same deposition time.

Key words: electroless, chemical deposition, copper nanowire, preparation, sensitizing solution