Synthesis, Characterization, and Catalytic Performance of Sb2Se3 Nanorods

Abstract

Antimony selenide has many potential applications in thermoelectric, photovoltaic, and phase-change memory devices. A novel method is described for the rapid and scalable preparation of antimony selenide (Sb2Se3) nanorods in the presence of hydrazine hydrate and/or permanganate at 40°C. Crystalline nanorods are obtained by the addition of hydrazine hydrate in a reaction mixture of antimony acetate and/or chloride and sodium selenite in neutral and basic media, while amorphous nanoparticles are formed by the addition of KMnO4 in a reaction mixture of antimony acetate/chloride and sodium selenite. The powder X-ray diffraction pattern confirms orthorhombic phase crystalline Sb2Se3 for the first and second reactions with lattice parameters a=1.120 nm, b=1.128 nm, and c=0.383 nm and amorphous Sb2Se3 for the third reaction. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and high-resolution TEM (HRTEM) images show the diameter of nanorods for the first and second reactions to be in the order of 100 nm to 150 nm and about 20 nm particles for the third reaction. EDX and XPS suggest that the nanorods are pure Sb2Se3. The UV-vis analysis indicates a band gap of 4.14 and 4.97 eV for the crystalline and amorphous Sb2Se3, respectively, corresponding to a blue shift. The photocatalytic study shows that the decolorization of Rhodamine in solution by nanoparticles is slightly greater than nanorods.