Synthesis, Structure, and Spectral Properties of ZnTe-Containing Nanocomposites Based on Arabinogalactan

Abstract— An environmentally friendly method of creating ZnTe-containing nanocomposites with varying amounts of inorganic phase (from 2.5 to 7.4%) using the stabilizing potential of the natural polysaccharide arabinogalactan and elemental tellurium was presented. A set of modern spectral, microscopic, and X-ray methods revealed that the obtained nanocomposites were formed as ZnTe nanoparticles of polycrystalline type, distributed in the polysaccharide matrix, with the size of 3–7 nm, the average diameter of 4.8 nm, and the stabilizing surface layer thickness of 18.7–37.7 nm. It was found that an increase in the zinc telluride content in the nanocomposites was accompanied by an increase in the hydrodynamic radius of the formed nanoparticles from 14 to 25 nm and from 47 to 70 nm for arabinogalactan–ZnTe nanocomposites with 2.5 and 7.4% ZnTe, respectively, as well as by a decrease in the optical band gap from 4.9 to 2.4 eV, respectively. This is probably due to an increase in size of the formed nanoparticles with increasing Zn²⁺/Te^2–– arabinogalactan ratio.