Vapor-Liquid-Solid Synthesis of [010]-Oriented Sb2Se3 Nanowires

In this article we report for the first time the synthesis of Sb2Se3 nanowires using a physical vapor-liquid-solid (VLS) process. We used microcrystals of Antimony as solid catalytic material and molten Selenium to generate the vapor source. Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) and Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM) images show that as-obtained Sb2Se3 nanowires have diameters in the range between 20 nm and 2 mu m and lengths up to 30 mu m. Fringes in TEM imaging reveals that Sb2Se3 nanowires are oriented along the [010] crystallographic direction. This orientation is being reported for the first time.