Facile Synthesis of CdTe Nanorods from the Growth of Te Nanorods

One-dimensional CdTe nanorods (NRs) are obtained by the reaction of various Cd precursors with single crystalline Te nanorod templates, which are pre-synthesized from Te precursors by a simple and reproducible solvothermal method. Throughout the process, the diffraction intensity of different crystal facets of single crystalline Te NRs varied with reaction times. Finally, by alloying Cd ions along the axial direction of Te NRs, polycrystalline cubic phase CdTe NRs with diameters of 80-150 nm and length up to 1.2-2.4 mu m are obtained. The nucleation and growth processes of Te and CdTe NRs are discussed in details, and their properties are characterized by XRD, SEM, TEM, Raman scattering, and UV-vis absorption spectra. It was found that the key elements of synthesizing CdTe NRs such as reaction temperatures and Cd sources will strongly influence the final shape of CdTe NRs.