CdTe nanosheets and pine-like hyperbranched nanostructures prepared by a modified film technique: Catalyst-assisted vacuum thermal evaporation

Novel CdTe nanostructures including nanosheets and pine-like hyperbranched (PH) nanostructures were prepared by a modified film technique, catalyst-assisted vacuum thermal evaporation. Metal bismuth powder was employed as catalyst to guide the growth of the nanostructures by the co-evaporation with CdTe powder. The chemical composition and crystal phase analyses reveal that the nanostructures are near stoichiometric CdTe with a zinc-blende structure. The morphological studies show that the CdTe nanosheets have a triangular shape with micro-sized lateral widths and nano-sized thickness. The CdTe PH nanostructures have a pine-like shape with 4 or 3 rows of aligned nanorod-branches. The formations of the novel CdTe nanostructures were addressed by the axial vapor–liquid–solid (VLS) growth combined with the lateral vapor–solid or VLS growth.