Fabrication and characterization of electrodeposited antimony telluride crystalline nanowires and nanotubes

Abstract

Arrays of nanowires and nanotubes of antimony-telluride (Sb 2 Te 3 ) have been fabricated by an electrodeposition technique. Scanning electron microscopy was employed to characterize the morphology and size of the fabricated Sb 2 Te 3 nanowires and nanotubes. Wavelength dispersive spectroscopy analysis confirmed the composition of the fabricated nanowires and nanotubes. The composition of the nanowires fabricated at a cathodic current density of 10 mA cm À2 and nanotubes fabricated at a cathodic current density of 5.5 mA cm À2 was found to be $39% Sb and $61% Te (2 : 3 ratio between Sb and Te). The fabricated Sb 2 Te 3 nanowire and nanotube arrays were found to be polycrystalline with no preferred orientation. The average lamellar thickness of the nanowires and nanotube crystallites was determined using the Scherrer equation and found to be $36 nm and $43 nm, respectively. The measured room temperature Seebeck coefficients for the Sb 2 Te 3 nanowires and nanotubes were +359 mV K À1 and +332 mV K À1 , respectively, confirming that the Sb 2 Te 3 nanowires and nanotubes were p-type. The electrical resistance measurements indicated that the resistance of the Sb 2 Te 3 nanowires and nanotubes decreased with increasing temperature, consistent with semiconducting behavior.

Single‐Source Precursor‐Based Deposition of Sb2Te3 Films by MOCVD**

“…Bulk Sb 2 Te 3 finds widespread technical applications in minipower‐generation systems and micro‐coolers, charge coupled device (CCD) technology, and infrared detectors . Since nanostructuring is expected to further enhance the figure of merit due to reduction of the thermal conductivity, Sb 2 Te 3 films and nanostructures with well‐defined morphologies have been fabricated both via solution phase and gas phase processes such as solvothermal processes, microwave heating, vapor transport growth, vapor‐liquid‐solid growth, electrochemical atomic layer epitaxy, electrochemical deposition, DC and RF sputtering, and molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) processes . In addition, MOCVD using trialkylstibanes SbR 3 (R = Me, Et) and dialkyltellanes TeR′ 2 (R = Et, i Pr) have been successfully employed …”

Rapid Surface Oxidation of Sb2Te3 as Indication for a Universal Trend in the Chemical Reactivity of Tetradymite Topological Insulators

“…However, for surface device applications, detailed knowledge of the stability limits of the surface properties and the behavior of the TSS under ambient conditions are required, especially as preparation techniques of TIs are being extended towards ultrathin freestanding layers 18 , nanocrystals 19 , nanowires and nanotubes 20 , step edges 21 or patterning by lithography 22 . In a context that is much closer to applications and despite of multiple attempts to estimate the reactivity of the prototypical TIs [23][24][25][26] , many open issues remain.…”

Electrodeposition of p-Type Sb2Te3 Films and Micro-Pillar Arrays in a Multi-Channel Glass Template

“…It seems that the aspect ratio of our deposits is incomparable with the nanowire that has been fabricated by previous work [40,53], but it also takes numerous of nanowire arrays to form a thermoelectric leg when it is assembled into a device. Therefore, the aspect ratio of a single nanowire is meaningless when using TE device.…”