Synthesis of Se nanospheres and PbSe nanoshells in solution under refluxing and stirring

In this paper, we report on a method to fabricate selenium (Se) nanospheres and lead selenide (PbSe) nanoshells in aqueous solution at 100 °C under refluxing and vigorous magnetic stirring. The PbSe nanoshells (the average diameter is 2.0 µm and average shell-thickness is 250 nm) were synthesized by using ascorbic acid as the reducing agent with the assistance of a template of synthesized Se nanospheres (the average diameter is 1.5 µm). The synthesized selenium nanospheres and PbSe nanoshells were further characterized by using x-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and energy-dispersive x-ray spectroscopy (EDS). Finally, the growth mechanism of Se nanospheres and PbSe nanoshells is also discussed.