Simple colloidal synthesis of single-crystal sb-se-s nanotubes with composition dependent band-gap energy in the near-infrared

Zhengtao Deng, Masud Mansuripur, Anthony J. Muscat

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

78 Scopus citations

Abstract

We report the first synthesis of high-quality binary and ternary Sb 2Se 3-xS x nanotubes across the entire compositional range from x = 0to3 via a simple, low-cost, colloidal synthetic method of injection of Sb(III)-complex solution into a hot paraffin liquid containing Se, S, or a mixture thereof. In contrast to the classic rolling mechanism, the modular formation of the reported nanotubes follows a four-stage self- seeding process: (i) amorphous nanospheres, (ii) short crystalline nanotubes growing out of relatively large amorphous nanospheres, (iii) long crystalline nanotubes attached to small amorphous nanospheres, and (iv) single-crystal nanotubes. The obtained single-crystal nanotubes have tunable composition, orthorhombic phase, well-defined rectangular cross sections, and growth direction along [001], as revealed by X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, transmission electron microscopy, and selected area electron diffraction studies. UV-vis-NIR absorption spectroscopy reveals that the optical bandgap energy of the Sb 2Se 3-xS x (0 ≤ x ≤ 3) nanotubes increases quadratically with the sulfur concentration x with these bandgap energies falling in the range from 1.18 to 1.63 eV at the red edge of the solar spectrum. The present study opens a new avenue to low-cost, large-scale synthesis of high quality semiconductor nanotubes with technological applications in solar energy conversion and also for a wide range of optical nanodevices operating in the near-infrared.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)2015-2020
Number of pages6
JournalNano Letters
Volume9
Issue number5
DOIs
StatePublished - May 13 2009

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Bioengineering
  • Chemistry(all)
  • Materials Science(all)
  • Condensed Matter Physics
  • Mechanical Engineering

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