B. Toroń

Sonochemical preparation of SbS1−xSexI nanowires

A sonochemical method for direct preparation of nanowires of SbS(1-x)Se(x)I solid solution has been established. The SbS(1-x)Se(x)I gel was synthesized using elemental Sb, S, Se and I in the presence of ethanol under ultrasonic irradiation (35kHz, 2W/cm(2)) at 50 degrees C for 2h. The product was characterized by using techniques such as powder X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, high-resolution transmission electron microscopy, energy dispersive X-ray analysis, selected area electron diffraction, and optical diffuse reflection spectroscopy. The SEM and HRTEM investigations exhibit that the as-prepared samples are made up of large quantity nanowires with lateral dimensions of about 10-50nm and lengths reaching up to several micrometers and single-crystalline in nature. The increase of molar composition of Se affects linear decrease of the indirect forbidden optical energy gap as well as the distance between (121) planes of the SbS(1-x)Se(x)I nanowires.

Optical properties of SbSI heterostructures

The antimony sulfoiodide (SbSI) single crystal being a ferroelectric semiconductor has a large number of interesting properties. Based on SbSI single crystal a new type of heterostructures has been produced. For the first time diodes, transistors and thyristors composed of SbSI/Sb2S3 heterojunctions have been fabricated by CO2 laser irradiation of selected sections of SbSI single crystals. Treated sections are composed of amorphous antimony (III) sulphide (Sb2S3) with energy gap 0.3 eV smaller (in room temperature) than that of SbSI. The structural optical, electrical and photoelectrical characteristics of produced devices have been investigated.

Using of sonochemically prepared SbSI for electrospun nanofibers

A novel polymeric, polyacrylonitrile (PAN) nanofibers containing ferroelectric and semiconducting antimony sulfoiodide (SbSI) have been made by electrospinning. SbSI nanowires, used as the filler, have been prepared sonochemically from antimony sulphide (Sb2S3) and antimony tri-iodide (SbI3) for the first time. Nanocrystalline SbSI has been fabricated in ethanol under ultrasonic irradiation (20kHz, 565W/cm2) at 323K within 2h. The products have been characterized by using techniques such as powder X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, energy dispersive X-ray analysis, high-resolution transmission electron microscopy, selected area electron diffraction and optical diffuse reflection as well as transmission spectroscopy. The good quality of the nanocrystals and their dispersion in the nanofibers volume is important because this material is attractive for nanogenerators due to its ferroelectric and piezoelectric properties. The amplitude of the voltage pulse, generated under shock pressure of 3.0MPa, has reached 180V in the prototype PAN/SbSI piezoelectric nanogenerator. The peak output voltage of about 0.2V was measured in bending/releasing conditions with the deformation frequency of 1Hz.