Preparation and characterization of nanocrystalline Cu2–xSe by a novel solvothermal pathway

Abstract

A novel solvothermal method has been developed to obtain nanocrystalline Cu _2–x Se at low temperature; CuI and Se were placed at 90 °C for 4 h in an autoclave with ethylenediamine as solvent and the product was characterized by XRD, TEM and XPS. The results revealed that as prepared Cu _2–x Se grains were nearly homogeneously spherical and the average grain size was ca. 18 nm. Ethylenediamine coordinated to Cu ⁺ probably plays an important role in the formation of nanocrystalline Cu _2–x Se. It is reasonable to expect that this simple one-step solvothermal route can be extended to obtain other nanocrystalline materials.