Template-free electrochemical deposition of tellurium nanowires with eutectic solvents

Electrochemical deposition of tellurium from deep eutectic solvents (DES) at gold film electrodes produced films nanowires. The was evenly distributed over the surface, with an average diameter ∼70 nm and length ∼1 µm. Deposition extremely sensitive to applied potential, concentration bath temperature, deviations away optimised conditions preventing formation desired nanostructure. Interestingly, replacing chloride in a popular solvent bromide or iodide had significant impact on resultant structure, giving no clearly defined nanostructure but nanoplatelets. This demonstrates strong control by halide ions, offering way two distinct nanostructures same core experimental set up.