Silver-induced growth of selenium nanowires in aqueous solution

Xuchuan Jiang, Lydia Kemal, Aibing Yu

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleResearchpeer-review

20 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

A new synthesis method, induced by silver nanoparticles, has been developed for generating trigonal-selenium (t-Se) nanowires in aqueous solution at room temperature (RT). By this method, single-crystalline t-Se nanowires capped tips were successfully synthesized with uniform diameter of ∼ 23 nm and length over hundreds of nanometers. This method exhibits some advantages in fabricating t-Se nanostructures, including no need to use stabilizers and sonichemical process, avoidance of toxic reducing agents (e.g. NaBH4, N2H4), and all operations being proceeded in aqueous media and at RT; particularly it can successfully achieve the transformation from amorphous α-Se to crystalline t-Se in aqueous solution. The as-synthesized nanowires display highly crystalline quality and high aspect ratios. They would be potentially applied in photoconductors, anisotropic thermo-conductors, and nonlinear optical responses. This method would be useful for generating one-dimensional nanostructures with similar lattice parameter(s).

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)2584-2588
Number of pages5
JournalMaterials Letters
Volume61
Issue number11-12
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 May 2007
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • Nanomaterials
  • Selenium nanowires
  • Semiconductor
  • Silver nanoparticles

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