Glucose assisted synthesis and growth mechanism of hierarchical antimony chalcogenides

Abstract

Hierarchical Sb₂Te₃ microflowers assembled from nanoplate building blocks were successfully fabricated via a solvothermal process in the presence of glucose. The factors influencing the formation of hierarchical Sb₂Te₃ microflowers were monitored by using field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM) and powder X-ray diffraction (XRD) characterizations. Based on the electron microscope observations, the growth mechanism of such hierarchical structures was proposed as an anisotropic growth mechanism followed by a self-assembly process. By replacing the Na₂TeO₃ with Na₂SeO₃ and sulfur powder, urchin-like Sb₂Se₃ and Sb₂S₃ composed of nanorods were synthesized. This facile method may open the opportunity for the controllable synthesis of hierarchical nanostructures based on low dimensional nanoscale building blocks. The obtained hierarchical nanostructures showed high Seebeck coefficients. It was anticipated that these novel hierarchical structures would have great applications in thermoelectrical devices and other promising fields.