Large-scale synthesis, growth mechanism, and photoluminescence of ultrathin te nanowires

In this paper, a green chemical synthetic route was developed to synthesize single-crystalline Te nanowires with an average diameter of 7 nm at a low temperature (90 °C) by using ascorbic acid as a reducing agent, Na2TeO3 as a tellurium source, and surfactant cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB) as a structure-directing agent. The morphology of Te nanowires in the presence of CTAB is strongly dependent on the reaction conditions such as the concentration of CTAB, reaction time, and reducing agents. A surfactant-assisted solid−solution−solid growth mechanism was identified to explain the formation of ultrathin Te nanowires. The single-crystalline Te nanowires with an average diameter of 7 nm display strong luminescence emission in the blue-violet region.