Morphology‐controlled vapor phase growth and characterization of one‐dimensional gate nanowires and two‐dimensional nanosheets for potential visible‐light active photocatalysts

Abstract

Gallium telluride (GaTe) one‐dimensional (1D) and two‐dimensional (2D) materials have drawn much attention for high‐performance optoelectronic applications because it possesses a direct bandgap for all thickness. We report the morphology‐controlled vapor phase growth of 1D GaTe nanowires and 2D GaTe nanosheets by a simple physical vapor transport (PVT) approach. The surface morphology, crystal structure, phonon vibration modes, and optical property of samples were characterized and studied. The growth temperature is a key synthetic factor to control sample morphology. The 1D GaTe single crystal monoclinic nanowires were synthesized at 550 °C. The strong interlayer interaction and high surface migration of adatoms on c‐sapphire enable the assembly of 1D nanowires into 2D nanosheet under 600 °C. Based on the characterization results demonstrated, we propose the van der Waals growth mechanism of 1D nanowires and 2D nanosheets. Moreover, the visible‐light photocatalytic activity of 1D nanowires and 2D nanosheets was examined. Both 1D and 2D GaTe nanostructures exhibit visible‐light active photocatalytic activity, suggesting that the GaTe nanostructures may be promising materials for visible light photocatalytic applications.