Fabrication and Characterization of Te/C Nanocables and Carbonaceous Nanotubes

In this Article, a green chemical synthetic route was developed to synthesize Te/C nanocables by using glucose as reducing agent and carbon source, Na2TeO3 as a tellurium source, and surfactant cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) as a structure-directing agent. The products are characterized in detail by multiform techniques: X-ray diffraction, energy-dispersive X-ray analysis, scanning electron microscopy, and transmission electron microscopy. The formation mechanisms of Te/C nanocables are tentatively proposed. By chemical etching of Te/C nanocables with different morphologies, various carbonaceous nanotubes can be obtained at room temperature.