Amino acids controlled growth of shuttle-like scrolled tellurium nanotubes and nanowires with sharp tips

Shuttle-like scrolled tellurium nanotubes and nanowires with sharp tips were synthesized. For this several amino acids with different functionalities and structural conformation have been first applied to illustrate how they can influence the crystal growth of Te. The results demonstrated that an amino acid with one extra amino group yielded superlong rigid nanowires with sharp ends, with length reaching more than 100 μm and a uniform diameter of 150 nm. The results indicate that the choice of an amino acid with a suitable combination of functional groups such as -NH2, -COOH, and -Oh can induce the formation of different tellurium nanostructures by a facile hydrothermal approach.