Ionic liquid bifunctionally modulated aggregation-coalescence mechanism to synthesize SnSe single-crystal nanorod/nanoparticle core shell nanostructures and single-crystal nanorods for optoelectronics

Material synthesis processes involving the bifunctional modulation of an ionic liquid have rarely been reported, and they should be significant to enrich liquid-phase synthesis methods. In this work, through the bifunctional modulation of the ionic liquid [Bmim]Cl, SnSe nanorafts and single-crystal SnSe nanorods with appropriately large diameters and length-to-diameter ratios were successfully fabricated by the solvothermal method. The role of [Bmim]Cl was to template the formation of the 1D assembly and promote the consequent rearrangement, reconstruction, coalescence and fusion of the SnSe nanoparticles in the 1D assembly. When used as photoelectric materials, the SnSe nanorafts and nanorods exhibited much better performance with high switching “ON/OFF” ratios of about 12 and 20, respectively, and they were superior to most of the previously reported SnSe products.