Temperature and pH influences on the structural and the emission properties of electrodeposited CdSe nanowires

Cadmium selenite (CdSe) nanowires have been electrodeposited by potentiostatic method using polycarbonate membranes as template. For the same potential value, the pH modification of the solution or the temperature variation of the substrate leads to drastic differences of the CdSe composition. A meticulous study of the influence of both temperature and pH value on the stoichiometry of electrodeposited CdSe nanowires has been done and several combinations of temperature/pH leading to the 50–50 CdSe composition have been found. The as-electrodeposited CdSe nanowires under these specific conditions reveal a good crystallinity with a <111> preferred growth orientation exhibiting a luminescence band in the visible range corresponding to the CdSe gap.