Sonochemical preparation of SbS(1-x)Se(x)I nanowires.

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.

Determination of energy band gap of nanocrystalline SbSI using diffuse reflectance spectroscopy.

Twelve methods of determining energy band gap (E(g)) of semiconductors using diffuse reflectance spectroscopy have been applied in investigations of sonochemically produced antimony sulfoiodide (SbSI) consisting of nanowires. It has been proved that the best method of determining E(g) is based on simultaneous fitting of many mechanisms of absorption to the spectral dependence of Kubelka-Munk function evaluated from the diffuse reflectance data. It allows determining the values of indirect forbidden E(g), the Urbach energy, and the constant absorption/scattering of the examined semiconductor.

Sonochemical preparation of SbSeI gel.

A novel sonochemical method for direct preparation of nanocrystalline antimony selenoiodide (SbSeI) has been established. The SbSeI gel was synthesized using elemental Sb, Se, and I in the presence of ethanol under ultrasonic irradiation (35 kHz, 2W/cm(2)) at 50 degrees C for 2h. The product was 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 lateral dimensions of about 20-50 nm and lengths reaching up to several micrometers and single crystalline in nature.