Structure and Thermoelectric Properties of BiSbTe₃ Nanowires Grown in Flexible Nanoporous Polycarbonate Templates.

We report the room-temperature growth of vertically aligned ternary BiSbTe₃ nanowires of diameter ~200 nm and length ~12 µm, within flexible track-etched nanoporous polycarbonate (PC) templates via a one-step electrodeposition process. BiSbTe₃ nanowires with compositions spanning the entire range from pure Bi₂Te₃ ( = 0) to pure Sb₂Te₃ ( = 2) were systematically grown within the nanoporous channels of PC templates from a tartaric-nitric acid based electrolyte, at the end of which highly crystalline nanowires of uniform composition were obtained. Compositional analysis showed that the Sb concentration could be tuned by simply varying the electrolyte composition without any need for further annealing of the samples. Thermoelectric properties of the BiSbTe₃ nanowires were measured using a standardized bespoke setup while they were still embedded within the flexible PC templates.