Pure and Applied Chemistry

Abstract: In this paper, we present solvothermal methods to chemically synthesize Sb₂Se₃ nanorods using dialkyl diselenophosphate (dsep) complexes of antimony. Energy-dispersive X-ray analysis shows the products are phase pure. We have also studied the Raman and photoluminescence spectroscopy of a single Sb₂Se₃ nanorod with an average size of 60 nm in diameter and a length less than 1 μm. Techniques have been devised to immobilize and allocate a single nano-object on an electron beam (E-beam) patterned smart substrate with metallic coordination markers. This also overcomes the limitation of spatial resolution of conventional optical techniques (~1 μm) to perform optical spectroscopy on an individual nano-object less than 100 nm in size. Raman spectroscopy reveals that Sb₂Se₃ nanorods synthesized at a lower temperature contain a small amount of Sb₂Se₃. The broad linewidth observed in luminescence spectra from a single rod is attributed to the increasing number of surface defects, impurities, and dangle bonds attached on the surface as the nanoparticle size reduced to nanometer scale.