Synthesis of self-aligned tellurium nanotubes by a sodium thiosulfate-assisted polyol method

Abstract

Large-scale synthesis of self-aligned single-crystalline tellurium nanotubes was achieved using a simple polyol reduction method with sodium tellurite (Na2TeO3) as the tellurium source and ethylene glycol (EG) as both a solvent and a reducing agent in the presence of polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) and sodium thiosulfate (Na2S2O3) as surfactants. The individual tellurium nanotubes exhibited well-aligned morphologies with diameters of 150–250 nm, lengths of 5–8 μm and wall thicknesses of 70–80 nm. The formation of these nanotubes with different dimensional structures and morphologies was found to be strongly dependent on the concentration of surfactants. In particular, the presence of Na2S2O3 was found to play a crucial role in achieving a uniform aligned morphology of the final tellurium product. The nanotubes preferentially self-aligned along the c-axis direction and gradually formed well-aligned nanotubes with hexagonal prism structures.