Tellurium nanotubes synthesized with microwave-assisted monosaccharide reduction method.

A microwave-assisted monosaccharide reducing approach has been developed in the preparation of tellurium nanotubes. The as-prepared tellurium nanotubes have the sizes of 50 - 100 nm in diameter, and a few micrometers in length. A series of contrastive experiments have illustrated that microwave-heating contributed a lot in the synthesis, and the decomposition of H2TeO3 to TeO2 and low reducibility of the monosaccharide played a key role in the process. The possible mechanism of the synthesis of the nanotubes has been preliminarily discussed.