Water-based ultrasonic synthesis of SbSI nanoneedles

• Developed easy method for the synthesis of SbSI needle-shaped crystals.
• Surfactants help to control crystals shape and material phase.
• Synthesized particles can be used to kill fast growing cells.

Semiconducting nanomaterials have found a range of applications in optoelectronics, energy harvesting, sensing, bio-imaging etc. Nanomaterials should be easy and inexpensive to manufacture, with stable and reproducible characteristics over time. Antimony sulpho-iodide (SbSI) has a unique combination of semiconductor, optic and piezoelectric parameters, however, its applications are currently hampered by difficulties in its production. Previous studies and experiments carried out to synthesize SbSI crystals involved long reaction times (over 70 h), and high temperatures (≈250 °C).In this work we developed water-based synthesis to produce sub-micro sized crystals and explore their properties. We attempted to control SbSI particles growth and formation by adding different surfactants and fillers to the reaction system. The crystal dimensions (shape/size) varied depending on the added filler. In addition, we performed in vitro cytotoxicity studies of SbSI particles and evaluated their potential for biomedical applications.