Bismuth telluride (Bi2Te3) nanowires: synthesis by cyclic electrodeposition/stripping, thinning by electrooxidation, and electrical power generation

Nanowires composed of the thermoelectric material Bi2Te3 were synthesized on highly oriented pyrolytic graphite (HOPG) electrodes using the electrochemical step edge decoration (ESED) method. Nanowire synthesis was initiated by applying a voltage pulse of -0.75 V versus SCE for 5 ms to an HOPG electrode in an aqueous solution containing both Bi3+ and TeO22-, thereby producing nuclei at the step edges. Bi2Te3 was electrodeposited onto these nuclei using a cyclic electrodeposition-stripping scheme that involved the electrodeposition of bismuth-rich Bi2Te3 on a negative-going voltammetric scan (to -0.05 V) and the subsequent anodic stripping of excess bismuth from these nanowires during a positive-going scan (to +0.35 V). When this cycle was repeated 10-50 times, Bi2Te3 nanowires in the 100-300-nm-diameter range were obtained. These nanowires were narrowly dispersed in diameter (RSDdia = 10-20%), were more than 100 microm in length, and were organized into parallel arrays containing hundreds of wires. Smaller nanowires, with diameters down to 30 nm, were obtained by electrooxidizing 150-nm-diameter Bi2Te3 nanowires at +0.37 V under conditions of kinetic control. This oxidation process unexpectedly improved the uniformity of Bi2Te3 nanowires, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) shows that these nanowires retain a Bi2Te3 core but also have a thin surface layer composed of Bi and Te oxides. The ability of Bi2Te3 nanowires to generate electrical power was assessed by transferring ensembles of these nanowires onto cyanoacrylate-coated glass surfaces and evaporating 4-point nickel contacts. A dimensionless figure of merit, ZT, ranging from 0 to 0.85 was measured for fresh samples that were less than 1 day old. XPS reveals that Bi2Te3 nanowires are oxidized within a week to Bi2O3 and TeO2. These oxides may interfere with the application by evaporation of electrical contacts to these nanowires.