Wet chemical assisted synthesis of self assembled tellurium nanostructures with enhanced stability

Abstract Tellurium (Te), a chalcogenide element, and its compounds are essential in the development of energy harvesting applications. Here, we reported successfully synthesized Te nanoparticles (NPs) at room temperature (RT) and 120 °C by wet chemical method, employing potassium tellurite (K2TeO3) and bulk Te powder as source with hydrazine hydrate (HH) as reducing agent. We found that protic solvent supports better reaction than aprotic solvents at RT. X-ray diffraction (XRD) displays enhanced peaks corresponds to hexagonal phase of Te. Raman spectra depicted the presence of intense peaks at 122 and 142 cm−1 attributed to A1 and E2 bond-stretching mode, respectively. Field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM) revealed the formation of nanorods, nanoplates or rice-like structures. The presented work has prospective use for many applications like thermoelectric, solar cells etc.