Sonochemical preparation of SbS1-xSexI nanowires

A sonochemical method for direct preparation of nanowires of SbS1-xSexI solid solution has been established. The SbS1-xSexI gel was synthesized using elemental Sb, S, Se and I in the presence of ethanol under ultrasonic irradiation (35 kHz, 2 W/cm(2)) at 50 degrees C for 2 h. The product was characterized by using techniques such as powder X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, high-resolution transmission electron microscopy, energy dispersive X-ray analysis, selected area electron diffraction, and optical diffuse reflection spectroscopy. The SEM and HRTEM investigations exhibit that the as-prepared samples are made up of large quantity nanowires with lateral dimensions of about 10-50 nm and lengths reaching up to several micrometers and single-crystalline in nature. The increase of molar composition of Se affects linear decrease of the indirect forbidden optical energy gap as well as the distance between (121) planes of the SbS1-xSexI nanowires. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.