ChemComm
Communication
capping agent strongly influences the size of resulting plates. Recently
the influence of solvent and anions of SSP has been reported on the
synthesis of Ag2Se and AgBr NPs by us.26 The results given in this
communication indicate that chemical composition of the present
nanostructured phase is independent of a single source precursor
molecule and solvent used. However, the morphology of the
generated NPs strongly depends on solvent. The thermolysis of both
1 and 2 in TOP gives nanorods of the PdTe phase. On the other
hand in OA : ODE (1 : 1) PdTe NPs have hexagonal morphology.
However chemical composition of SSP influences the dimensions of
nanostructures, in both the solvents tridentate ligand based SSP
gives nanostructures smaller in size relative to those obtained from
SSP having a bidentate ligand (see Table 1). In summary both the
complexes 1 and 2 are SSPs for PdTe nanostructures as their
thermolysis in TOP gives cubic PdTe nanorods whereas in OA : ODE
(1 : 1) results in hexagonal PdTe NPs.
Fig. 4 TEM image of cubic PdTe nanorods.
Table 1 Size-parameters of nanostructures
In TOP (nanorod)
In OA–ODE (hexagonal NP)
SSP Length (nm) Diameter (nm) Length (nm) Edge length (nm)
1
2
2175
2027
217
71
296
96
146–167
45–57
Department of Science and Technology, Council of Scientific
and Industrial Research and University Grants Commission
New Delhi (India) supported this work through projects and
JRF/SRF awards to KNS and AS (CSIR) and HJ and OP (UGC).
Notes and references
1 Y. Wang, Z. Y. Tang, P. Podsiadlo, Y. Elkasabi, J. Lahann and
N. A. Kotov, Adv. Mater., 2006, 18, 518.
2 D. Kong and Y. Cui, Nat. Chem., 2011, 3, 845.
3 D. Kong, Y. Chen, J. J. Cha, Q. Zhang, J. G. Analytis, K. Lai, Z. Liu,
S. S. Hong, K. J. Koski, S.-K. Mo, Z. Hussain, I. R. Fisher, Z.-X. Shen
and Y. Cui, Nat. Nanotechnol., 2011, 6, 705.
Fig. 5 Proposed growth mechanism for nanorod formation.
4 K. Wang, H. W. Liang, W. T. Yao and S. H. Yu, J. Mater. Chem., 2011,
21, 15057.
the chemical composition of the precursor molecule and reaction
temperature. The shape of nanostructure depends on the coordi-
nating ability of the surfactant.22 The strongly coordinated ones do
not allow equal growth in all directions. The growth in one direction
results in shapes like rod.23 Thus in our case due to the presence of
strongly coordinating TOP growth is in one preferential direc-
tion only resulting in the formation of nanorods (Fig. 5). This is
supported by the work of Hyeon et al.22 The weak ligating power
of the OA–ODE mixture results in hexagonal NPs.
5 P. Tangney and S. Fahy, Phys. Rev. B, 2002, 65, 054302.
6 L. Y. Chiang, J. W. Sioirczeweki, R. Kastrup, C. S. Hsu and
R. B. Upasani, J. Am. Chem. Soc., 1991, 113, 6574.
7 S. Eijsbouts, V. H. J. DeBeer and R. Prins, J. Catal., 1988, 109, 217.
8 S. Dey and V. K. Jain, Platinum Met. Rev., 2004, 48, 16.
9 H. Joshi, K. N. Sharma, A. K. Sharma, O. Prakash and A. K. Singh,
Chem. Commun., 2013, 49, 7483.
10 K. N. Sharma, H. Joshi, V. V. Singh, P. Singh and A. K. Singh, Dalton
Trans., 2013, 42, 3908.
11 K. N. Sharma, H. Joshi, A. K. Sharma, O. Prakash and A. K. Singh,
Organometallics, 2013, 32, 2443.
The dependence of shapes of nanocrystals prepared by thermo-
lysis on the solvent used has been noticed in few cases recently.
The synthesis of shape-selective monodisperse hexagonal Sb2Te3
nanoplates by thermal decomposition of SSP (Et2Sb)2Te has been
reported recently by Schulz et al.25 The formation of these nanoplates
is independent of the temperature but the concentration of the
12 H.-H. Li, S. Zhao, M. Gong, C.-H. Cui, D. He, H.-W. Liang, L. Wu and
S.-H. Yu, Angew. Chem., Int. Ed., 2013, 52, 1.
13 A. B. Karki, D. A. Browne, S. Stadler, J. Li and R. Jin, J. Phys.: Condens.
Matter, 2012, 24, 055701.
14 F. Gao, Q. Lu and D. Zhao, Nano Lett., 2003, 3, 85.
15 V. M. Huxter, T. Mirkovic, P. S. Nair and G. D. Scholes, Adv. Mater.,
2008, 20, 2439.
16 Y. Du, B. Xu, T. Fu, M. Cai, F. Li, Y. Zhang and Q. Wang, J. Am. Chem.
Soc., 2010, 132, 1470.
17 J. S. Ritch, T. Chivers, M. Afzaal and P. O’Brien, Chem. Soc. Rev.,
2007, 36, 1622.
18 T. Chivers, J. S. Ritch, S. D. Robertson, J. Konu and H. M. Tuononen,
Acc. Chem. Res., 2010, 43, 1053.
19 P. O’Brien, J. R. Walsh, I. M. Watson, L. Hart and S. R. P. Silva,
J. Cryst. Growth, 1996, 167, 133.
20 M. A. Malik, M. Afzaal and P. O’Brien, Chem. Rev., 2010, 110, 4417.
21 P. Singh, D. Das, A. Kumar and A. K. Singh, Inorg. Chem. Commun.,
2012, 15, 163.
22 J. Park, B. Koo, K. Y. Yoon, Y. Hwang, M. Kang, J.-G. Park and
T. Hyeon, J. Am. Chem. Soc., 2005, 127, 8433, and reference therein.
23 J. Zhang, S. Jin, H. C. Fry, S. Peng, E. Shevchenko, G. P. Wiederrecht and
T. Rajh, J. Am. Chem. Soc., 2011, 133, 15324, and references therein.
24 G. Gupta and J. Kim, Dalton Trans., 2013, 42, 8209.
25 S. Schulz, S. Heimann, J. Friedrich, M. Engenhorst, G. Schierning
and W. Assenmacher, Chem. Mater., 2012, 24, 2228.
26 H. Joshi, K. N. Sharma, V. V. Singh, P. Singh and A. K. Singh, Dalton
Trans., 2013, 42, 2366.
Fig. 6 PXRD of PdTe NPs.
c
9346 Chem. Commun., 2013, 49, 9344--9346
This journal is The Royal Society of Chemistry 2013