A simple sonochemical approach for synthesis of selenium nanostructures and investigation of its light harvesting application

Selenium (Se) nanostructures were synthesized by a sonochemical method using SeCl4 as a new precursor for Se nanostructures. Moreover, hydrazine, potassium borohydride, and thioglycolic acid were used as reducing reagents in aqueous solution. Ultrasonic power, irradiation time, reducing agent, solvent, HCl, NaOH, and the surfactant were changed in order to investigate the effect of preparation parameters on the morphology and particle size of selenium. The obtained Se with different morphologies and sizes was characterized by XRD, SEM, TEM, EDS, and DRS. The selenium nanostructures exhibited enhanced photocatalytic activity in the degradation of methylene blue (MB) under visible light irradiation. Furthermore, to examine the solar cell application of as-synthesized selenium nanostructure, FTO/TiO2/Se/Pt-FTO and FTO/Se/CdS/Pt-FTO structures were created by deposited selenium film on top of the TiO2 layer and FTO glass prepared by Doctor's blade method, respectively. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.