In situ liquid-phase TEM electrodeposition of tellurium nanostructures

Improving the synthesis of semiconductor nanostructures could unlock new applications in electronic and thermoelectric devices. In situ liquid-phase transmission electron microscopy (TEM) is one of the few techniques able to perform real-space imaging of liquid-phase synthesis at the nanoscale, yet it has rarely been applied to study semiconductor nanowire growth. Here, we report using liquid-phase scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM), to track the early stages of nucleation, as well as the growth kinetics of individual tellurium nanostructures. We find that the Te initially forms as spherical seed particles, which subsequently grow at speeds in the range of 1–15 nm s⁻¹, depending on the electron flux and competition from neighboring nanowire tips. We found that Bi seeding increases the growth of Te nanostructures during liquid phase STEM and used this insight to demonstrate increased deposition rates for Te at fixed reducing potential in a laboratory-scale electrodeposition synthesis.