Electrodeposition of stable and narrowly dispersed germanium nanoclusters from an ionic liquid

Abstract

Germanium nanoclusters with a narrow height distribution have been electrodeposited from a dilute solution of GeCl₄ in the ionic liquid 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium hexafluorophosphate [BMIm]PF₆: under the reported conditions the lateral sizes of most of the clusters range between 20 and 30 nm while their heights vary from 1 to 10 nm with most of them between 1 and 5 nm.