Electrochemical Deposition of Nanocrystalline Bi-Te Films and Their Characterizations

Galvanostatic electrochemical processes were used to electrodeposit Bi-Te binary thin films. Single-phased Bi2Te3 and Bi4Te3 films were synthesized in turn on the same electrolyte. Bi2Te3 thin film was composed of regular nanorods with the length up to 100 nm and average width of 10 nm, which exhibits large specific areas and benefits to the application as thermoelectric (TE) materials. And the Bi4Te3 thin film is composed of nanoparticles which assembl greatly into irregular polyhedrons. The results prove that it is possible to tune the phase composition and morphology of Bi-Te binary thin films by changing the deposition parameters