Tellurium nanostructures: Simple chemical reduction synthesis, characterization and photovoltaic measurements

Herein, we report a simple chemical reduction method at low temperature to synthesize different tellurium (Te) nanostructures including nanorods and nanospheres. In addition, the effect of preparation parameters such as solvent, surfactant and reducing agent on the morphology of Te was studied. The as-produced Te nanostructures were analyzed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), X-ray powder diffraction (XRD) and photoluminescence spectroscopy (PL). Based on the morphological studies, it was found that sphere-like and rod-like nanostructures of Te could be obtained by using potassium borohydride (KBH4) and hydrazine hydrate (N2H4 center dot H2O) as reducing agents, respectively. On the other hand, very uniform nanopartidies of Te have been formed in the presence of thioglycolic acid (TGA) as surfactant. We have also investigated the photocurrent density-voltage (J-V) curve of Te nanorods. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.