Trifold tellurium one-dimensional nanostructures and their formation mechanism

Uniform trifold tellurium nanostructures have been synthesized through a facile and green solvothermal method. Their structural characteristics were investigated by using various electron microscopy techniques. The results showed that tellurium nanostructures are well-crystallized and grow along the [0001] direction. They have the hexagonal crystal structure and trifold morphology with a lateral dimension of less than 100 nm. Through detailed structural analysis of intermediate products and structural modeling, the formation mechanism of trifold tellurium nanostructures has been well illustrated; that is, the trifold Te nanostructures shared two {112̄0} sidewalls of nanowire components with each other to reduce the entire system energy.