Fabrication and characterization of Bi2Te3 nanoplates via a simple solvothermal process

Bi2Te3 nanoplates have been successfully obtained by a novel solvothermal method in the presence of hexadecyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB). Various techniques such as X-ray diffraction (XRD), field-emission scanning electron microscope (FESEM), transmission electron microscope (TEM), selected area electron diffraction (SAED), and Fourier transform infrared spectrometry (FT-IR) have been used to characterize the obtained products. The results show that the as-synthesized samples are rhombohedral-structured Bi2Te3 single-crystal nanoplates about 70–200 nm in diagonal and 30 nm in thickness, and the growth direction is perpendicular to c-axis. The existence of CTAB is vital to the formation of the plate-like morphology. In addition, the reaction solvents also have important influence on the shape-control of final products.