Nano-dendrites in NaFe4P12 nano-wires synthesized by hydrothermal method

Abstract Skutterudite is one of the most promising thermoelectric (TE) semiconductor materials. Last year, NaFe4P12 skutterudite nano-wires have been synthesized by our group, and may potentially be used for preparing advanced TE materials with a quantum structure. Recently, we found that there are some nano-dendrites in the NaFe4P12 nano-wires, which can be used in some special electronic components to connect the nano-wires as nano-joints. In this paper, the morphology and growth mechanism of NaFe4P12 nano-dendrites are reported. The angles between two branches are 60° or 120°. Electron diffraction shows that the orientation plane of the dendrites is (1 1 1). The formation of the dendrites is caused by defects in the nano-wires.