Mesoporous Metastable CuTe2 Semiconductor.

Binary metastable semiconductor materials offer exciting possibilities in the field of optoelectronics, such as photovoltaics, tunable photosensors, and detectors. However, understanding their properties and translating them into practical applications can sometimes be challenging, owing to their thermodynamic instability. Herein, we report a temperature-controlled crystallization technique involving electrochemical deposition to produce metastable CuTe2 thin films that can reliably function under ambient conditions. A series of in situ heating/cooling cycle tests from room temperature to 200 °C followed by spectral, morphological, and compound analyses (such as ultraviolet-visible light spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS)) suggest that the seeding electrodes play a key role in the realization of the metastable phase in CuTe2 films. In particular, CuTe2 films deposited on Al electrodes exhibit superior crystallinity and long-term stability compared with those grown on a Au substrate. The XRD data of thermally annealed CuTe2 thin films deposited on Al show a markedly sharp peak, indicating significantly increased crystal-domain sizes. Our method can be used to achieve the metastable phase of CuTe2 with a bandgap of 1.67 eV and offers outstanding photoresponsivity under different illumination conditions.

Mesoporous Semiconductive Bi2Se3 Films.

Bi2Se3 is a semiconductive material possessing a bandgap of 0.3 eV, and its unique band structure has paved the way for diverse applications. Herein, we demonstrate a robust platform for synthesizing mesoporous Bi2Se3 films with uniform pore sizes via electrodeposition. Block copolymer micelles act as soft templates in the electrolyte to create a 3D porous nanoarchitecture. By controlling the length of the block copolymer, the pore size is adjusted to 9 and 17 nm precisely. The nonporous Bi2Se3 film exhibits a tunneling current in a vertical direction of 52.0 nA, but upon introducing porosity (9 nm pores), the tunneling current increases significantly to 684.6 nA, suggesting that the conductivity of Bi2Se3 films is dependent on the pore structure and surface area. The abundant porous architecture exposes a larger surface area of Bi2Se3 to the surrounding air within the same volume, thereby augmenting its metallic properties.

Plasma-Induced Nanocrystalline Domain Engineering and Surface Passivation in Mesoporous Chalcogenide Semiconductor Thin Films.

The synthesis of highly crystalline mesoporous materials is key to realizing high-performance chemical and biological sensors and optoelectronics. However, minimizing surface oxidation and enhancing the domain size without affecting the porous nanoarchitecture are daunting challenges. Herein, we report a hybrid technique that combines bottom-up electrochemical growth with top-down plasma treatment to produce mesoporous semiconductors with large crystalline domain sizes and excellent surface passivation. By passivating unsaturated bonds without incorporating any chemical or physical layers, these films show better stability and enhancement in the optoelectronic properties of mesoporous copper telluride (CuTe) with different pore diameters. These results provide exciting opportunities for the development of long-term, stable, and high-performance mesoporous semiconductor materials for future technologies.