Facile synthesis of trigonal selenium nanotubes in ethanol at low temperature

A novel, facile route to synthesize trigonal selenium (t-Se) nanotubes of several micrometers in length was proposed, in which H2SeO3 was reduced by hydrazine hydrate in ethanol at 40 °C. To get a better understanding of t-Se nanotubes' formation mechanism, the shape evolutionary process of them was monitored by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and transmission electron microscope (TEM). Accordingly, there are two key processes in the growth of t-Se nanotubes including both partial dissolution of amorphous Se nanospheres to irregular colloids and the subsequent recrystallization of the colloids to form t-Se nanotubes. Moreover, the morphologies of the obtained products dramatically changed from sea urchin-like, flower-like to cube-like at different volume ratios of water/ethanol of the reaction media. It affords an effective and facile strategy for the morphology-controlled synthesis of Se nanostructures.

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► Facile synthesis of t-Se trigonal nanotubes.
► Key growth processes of t-Se nanotubes are partial dissolution and recrystallization.
► Morphology dependency of Se nanostructures on water/ethanol ratios.