2-Pyridyl selenolates of antimony and bismuth: Synthesis, characterization, structures and their use as single source molecular precursor for the preparation of metal selenide nanostructures and thin films.

Reactions of SbCl(3) and BiCl(3) with M'Se-C(5)H(3)(R-3)N (M' = Li or Na; R = H or Me) gave homoleptic selenolate complexes of the general formula [M{Se-C(5)H(3)(R-3)N}(3)] (M = Sb or Bi). The complexes were characterized by elemental analysis, UV-vis and NMR ((1)H, (13)C and (77)Se) spectroscopy. The single crystal X-ray analysis of [M{Se-C(5)H(3)(Me-3)N}(3)].nH(2)O (M/n = Sb/1.5 and Bi/0.5) revealed that the antimony complex adopts a trigonal pyramidal configuration with monodentate selenolate ligands while the bismuth analogue acquires a distorted square pyramidal configuration defined by two chelating and one monodentate selenolate groups. Pyrolysis of [M{Se-C(5)H(3)(Me-3)N}(3)] either in a furnace or in hexadecylamine (HDA) at different temperatures gave a variety of M(2)Se(3) nanostructures. Thin films of metal selenides have also been deposited on glass substrate by aerosol-assisted chemical vapor deposition (AACVD). Both nanostructures and thin films of metal selenides were characterized by UV-vis spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM).