TEMPERATURE-CONTROLLED SYNTHESIS OF GALLIUM ANTIMONIDE NANOPARTICLES IN SOLUTION Stephan Schulz* and Wilfried Assenmacher Institut fu ¨r Anorganische Chemie der Universita ¨t Bonn, D-53121 Bonn, Germany (Refereed) (Received October 26, 1998; Accepted February 9, 1999) ABSTRACT Reactions of GaCl 3 and Sb(SiMe 3 ) 3 in a 1:1 molar ratio in different solvents (pentane, hexane, toluene, and xylene) are described. The resulting GaSb was characterized by electron and X-ray diffraction studies, energy-dispersive X-ray (EDS) analysis, and transmission electron micrography (TEM) studies. The particle size and chemical composition was controlled by the solvent. The size of the GaSb nanoparticles varied between 10 and 50 nm. © 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd KEYWORDS: A. nanostructures, A. semiconductors, B. chemical synthesis, C. electron microscopy INTRODUCTION During the last decade, researchers have focused on the preparation of nanocrystalline particles, due to their interesting electronic and optical properties [1]. In the case of the group 13/15 semiconducting materials (III-V semiconductors), the preparation of phosphides and arsenides has been investigated extensively [2]. In 1986, dehalosilylation reactions were conducted to prepare metalorganic group 13-15 compounds and, in 1989, [3], group 13-15 materials were synthesized for the first time by this method [4]. Since that time, different research groups have confirmed this route to prepare ME materials (M = Al, Ga, In; E = P, As) of nanoscale dimension [5]. Group 13 antimonides are narrow, direct band gap semiconductors (GaSb: E g = 0.75 eV) with high electron mobilities (GaSb: 3000 – 4000 cm -2 Vs), which render them very attractive *To whom correspondence should be addressed. Materials Research Bulletin, Vol. 34, Nos. 12/13, pp. 2053–2059, 1999 Copyright © 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd Printed in the USA. All rights reserved 0025-5408/99/$–see front matter PII S0025-5408(99)00212-3 2053