Preparation of Single-crystalline Selenium Nanowires in the Presence of Ethylenediaminetetramethylenephosphonic Acid

Abstract Selenium nanowires have been synthesized by using 2-mercaptoethylamine-depleted CdSe nanoparticles as selenium source and ethylenediaminetetramethylenephosphonic acid as chelating agent. The products were characterized by X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, high-resolution transmission electron microscopy, and UV–vis spectrophotometry. The result shows that the selenium nanowires are single crystals grown along the [001] direction of hexagonal lattice. The optical measurement shows a blue shift relative to the bulk hexagonal selenium, and the optical bandedge might be attributed to the interchain interactions within a hexagonal selenium crystal.