Ambient Aqueous Growth of Cu₂Te Nanostructures with Excellent Electrocatalytic Activity toward Sulfide Redox Shuttles

Abstract

A new aqueous and scalable strategy to synthesize surfactant‐free Cu2Te nanotubes and nanosheets at room temperature has been developed. In aqueous solution, Cu2E (E = O, S, Se) nanoparticles can be easily transformed into Cu2Te nanosheets and nanotubes via a simple anion exchange reaction under ambient conditions. The formation of Cu2Te nanosheets is ascribed to a novel exchange‐peeling growth mechanism instead of simple Kirkendall effect; and the resultant nanosheets can be further rolled into nanotubes with assistance of stirring. The morphologies of Cu2Te nanosheets and nanotubes can be easily controlled by changing the synthesis parameters, such as the concentration of precursors, the size of nanoparticle precursor, and the amount of NaBH4, as well as the stirring speed. Thus‐formed Cu2Te nanostructures exhibit excellent catalytic activity toward sulfide redox shuttles and are exploited as counter electrodes catalysts for quantum dot sensitized solar cells. The performance of Cu2Te nanostructures strongly depends on their morphology, and the solar cells made with counter electrodes from Cu2Te nanosheets show the maximum power conversion efficiency of 5.35%.

Electrochemically Activated Cu2–xTe as an Ultraflat Discharge Plateau, Low Reaction Potential, and Stable Anode Material for Aqueous Zn‐Ion Half and Full Batteries

“…The stable open‐circuit potential can be attributed to the insolubility of copper telluride both Cu 2– x Te and ZnTe in mild acid electrolyte. [ 60 ] Besides, the XRD pattern of Cu 2– x Te after 2000 cycles is also indexed to the Cu 2– x Te phase (Figure 3g), and the flower‐like structure can be still kept without obvious morphological changes after 2000 cycles (Figure 3h,i), demonstrating the stable structure of Cu 2– x Te. In addition, when ZnSO 4 solution is used as electrolyte, the cycling performance of Cu 2– x Te electrode becomes very poor (Figure S7a,b, Supporting Information), which is maybe associated with the formation of Zn 4 SO 4 (OH) 6 ·5H 2 O layer (Figure S7c,d, Supporting Information).…”

In Situ Dynamics during Heating of Copper-Intercalated Bismuth Telluride

“…In addition to these interesting dynamics, this transformation is also a potential synthetic pathway for producing flat platelets of single-crystal Cu 2 Te, which has only been synthesized in a few nanostructured form factors to date. [63][64][65][66] As mentioned previously, the details of the transformation process are specific to the high vacuum conditions used here. However, to verify the applicability of these results to other conditions, Cu-intercalated Bi 2 Te 3 platelets were heated to 650 C in a 200-Torr Ar environment as shown in Figure S4A.…”

Unusual Red Light Emission from Nonmetallic Cu2Te Microdisk for Laser and SERS Applications

“…[ 22–24 ] Thus, the crystal structure determination is a prerequisite to unveil the atomic position in the Cu 2 Te structure and then circumvent the controversy. Furthermore, thermoelectric, [ 25–29 ] electrocatalytic, [ 30 ] plasmonics and photonics characteristics [ 6 ] of micro/nanoscale Cu 2 Te are poorly investigated due to reduced number of available tellurium sources. In this context, photothermal therapy [ 31–33 ] is emerging as a new application of Cu 2 Te.…”