Research Highlights

• Subject Categories:
  • Chemistry
  • Materials

Published online: 16 September 2009 | doi:10.1038/nchina.2009.182

Material chemistry: Say it with flowers

Anne Pichon

Introduction

© (2009) RSC

As the use of tellurium micro- and nano-materials gradually increases, in particular in the electronics industry, so does the need to control their structural morphology. A wide variety of one- and two-dimensional structures have been investigated, including nanobelts, nanoribbons, nanotubes and thin films, but examples of three-dimensional nanocrystals are still limited and their preparation typically requires the presence of a structure-directing agent, such as a polymer, surfactant or template.

Now, a team led by Shun Wang and Shaoming Huang at Wenzhou University in China and Jichang Wang at the University of Windsor in Canada¹ have prepared flower-like tellurium superstructures through a low-temperature solvothermal route without a structure-directing agent. Their method involves heating a tellurium(IV) compound in chloroform at 120–140 °C with an aqueous solution of dithiodibenzoic acid (DTBA) containing sodium hydroxide. The DTBA reacts with the sodium hydroxide to produce sulphide ions, which then reduce the tellurium complex.

A combination of electron microscopy techniques revealed that the tellurium nanoparticles first aggregated into clusters, and then formed needle-like nanorods that nucleated from the cluster core and grew to form flower-like structures. The researchers could tailor the diameter and length of the needles by adjusting the reaction conditions.

The flower-like structures also display a blue-violet luminescence that differs from that of other tellurium superstructures.

The authors of this work are from:
Nano-materials and Chemistry Key Laboratory, Wenzhou University, Wenzhou, China; Department of Physics, Wenzhou University, Wenzhou, China; Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of Windsor, Windsor, Ontario, Canada.

Reference

1. Wang, S. et al. Synthesis, characterization and optical properties of flower-like tellurium. CrystEngComm. doi:10.1039/b905053c (2009). | Article | OpenURL