A novel polymeric, polyacrylonitrile (PAN) nanofibers containing ferroelectric and semiconducting antimony sulfoiodide (SbSI) have been made by electrospinning. SbSI nanowires, used as the filler, have been prepared sonochemically from antimony sulphide (Sb2S3) and antimony tri-iodide (SbI3) for the first time. Nanocrystalline SbSI has been fabricated in ethanol under ultrasonic irradiation (20kHz, 565W/cm2) at 323K within 2h. The products have been characterized by using techniques such as powder X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, energy dispersive X-ray analysis, high-resolution transmission electron microscopy, selected area electron diffraction and optical diffuse reflection as well as transmission spectroscopy. The good quality of the nanocrystals and their dispersion in the nanofiber's volume is important because this material is attractive for nanogenerators due to its ferroelectric and piezoelectric properties. The amplitude of the voltage pulse, generated under shock pressure of 3.0MPa, has reached 180V in the prototype PAN/SbSI piezoelectric nanogenerator. The peak output voltage of about 0.2V was measured in bending/releasing conditions with the deformation frequency of 1Hz.

This paper presents investigations of the quantum efficiency coefficient for the photogeneration of carriers in aligned antimony sulfoiodide (SbSI) nanowires. Therefore the spectral dependences (between 488 and 700 nm) of photoconductivity current (I-PC) were measured for temperatures from 263 to 323 K and for different light intensities. The least squares method was applied to fit the experimental I-PC data with appropriate theoretical dependence. From this fitting, diffusion length and surface recombination velocity of carriers as well as spectral dependences of quantum efficiency coefficients for different temperatures and different light intensities were obtained. A comparison of the values of absorption coefficient obtained from the measurements of optical diffusive reflectance and from evaluation of the quantum efficiency coefficient is presented. (C) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

The using of sonochemically prepared components for growth of SbI(3).3S(8) single crystals from the vapor phase is presented for the first time. The good optical quality of the obtained crystals is important because this material is valuable for optoelectronics due to its non-linear optical properties. The products were characterized by using techniques such as X-ray crystallography, powder X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, energy dispersive X-ray analysis, high-resolution transmission electron microscopy, selected area electron diffraction, optical diffuse reflection spectroscopy and optical transmittance spectroscopy. The direct and indirect forbidden energy gaps of SbI(3).3S(8) illuminated with plane polarized light with electric field parallel and perpendicular to the c-axis of the crystal have been determined. The second harmonic generation of light in the grown crystals was observed.

A sonochemical method for direct preparation of nanowires of SbS(1-x)Se(x)I solid solution has been established. The SbS(1-x)Se(x)I gel was synthesized using elemental Sb, S, Se and I in the presence of ethanol under ultrasonic irradiation (35kHz, 2W/cm(2)) at 50 degrees C for 2h. 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 10-50nm 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 SbS(1-x)Se(x)I nanowires.

A novel sonochemical method for direct preparation of nanocrystalline antimony sulfoiodide (SbSI) has been established. The SbSI gel was synthesized using elemental Sb, S and I in the presence of ethanol under ultrasonic irradiation (35kHz, 2W/cm2) at 50°C for 2h. The products were characterized by using techniques such as powder X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy dispersive X-ray analysis (EDAX), high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM), selected area electron diffraction (SAED), and optical diffuse reflection spectroscopy (DRS). The SEM and HRTEM investigations exhibit that the as-prepared samples are made up of large quantity nanowires with diameters of about 10–50nm and lengths reaching up to several micrometers and single-crystalline in nature.

For the first time the infrared absorbance of the ultrasonically fabricated nanowires of antimony sulfoiodide (SbSI) has been measured from 750cm−1 to 4000−1 cm. The SEM and HRTEM investigations exhibit that the as-prepared SbSI ethanogel is made up of large quantity nanowires with diameters of about 10–50nm and lengths reaching up to several μm and single-crystalline in nature. The IR measurements have been performed on as-prepared, dried and postannealed samples. The obtained results have been compared with the results of IR investigations of powdered single crystals of SbSI. One of the features of the sonochemically fabricated SbSI nanowires is the strong adsorption of ethanol, ethoxide species, ethylene and water.