Self-assembly of three-dimensional nanostructured antimony

Abstract

The 3D nanostructured antimony is synthesized by simply immerging an anodically oxidized copper sheet into SbCl3-(n-Bu)4NBF4-DMSO solution at room temperature. The morphology, shape, and structure were characterized by FE-SEM, XRD, and HRTEM. The 3D nanostructured antimony has a regular fourteen-faced polyhedron shape and is constructed by Sb nanowires. The Sb nanowires are single crystals with a rhombohedral crystal structure, the average diameter of the Sb nanowires ranges from 5 to 8 nm. The HRTEM investigation and theoretical calculations indicate that Sb nanowires grow along the arrises of its rhombohedral lattice. The growth mechanism is proposed, the electron transport along Sb nanowires may be anisotropic and results in the preferred orientation of the Sb nanowires growth. The nanocages can be formed by quaric self-assembly of Sb nanowires because of the anisotropy of its rhombohedral crystal structure.