Synthesis of surface-functionalized t-Se microspheres via a green wet-chemical route

Abstract

Colloidal trigonal selenium (t-Se) microspheres have been synthesized through a mild hydrothermal reduction reaction, using glucose as a reducing regent and water as an environmentally friendly solvent. This green route provides a one-step, simple, and low-cost method for the preparation of t-Se microspheres with a tunable diameter range of 1.5–3.5 µm. More importantly, the resulting t-Se microspheres inherit functional groups from the starting materials and possess hydrophilic and biocompatible surfaces. The as-synthesized products were characterized by transmission electron microscopy (TEM), powder X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy-dispersive X-ray (EDX) spectroscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), and UV–vis spectroscopy.