Preparation and characterization of the antimony telluride hexagonal nanoplates

Nanostructured thermoelectric materials are of much interest for improving the thermoelectric figure of merit. In the present work, Sb2Te3 hexagonal nanoplates were successfully fabricated via a facile hydrothermal method. The products were characterized by means of X-ray diffraction, field-emission scanning electron microscope, transmission electron microscope and energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy. The results show that the typical Sb2Te3 crystal is hexagonal in shape with about 35 nm in thickness and 300 nm in edge length. The mechanism for formation of Sb2Te3 hexagonal nanoplates is primarily discussed.