A single tellurium seed particle, just 5 nanometers wide, flickers into view under the electron beam—then splits into branching wires that race to grow, feeding on ions in the surrounding liquid. For the first time, scientists have captured this moment in real time, watching as semiconducting nanowires emerge from solution like crystals forming in slow-motion frost. Led by Professor Sarah Haigh at the University of Manchester’s National Graphene Institute and Dr. Yi-Chao Zou of Sun Yat-sen University, the team used liquid-phase transmission electron microscopy to reveal the hidden choreography of nanowire growth—a process critical for next-generation electronics, sensors, and energy conversion devices.
Tellurium, a semiconductor with exceptional thermoelectric and optoelectronic properties, must be precisely shaped at the nanoscale to unlock its full potential. Yet until now, the earliest stages of its formation—nucleation and initial growth—have remained largely invisible, hidden within the murky dynamics of liquid synthesis. This new window into real-time development changes that. The researchers observed that tellurium first appears as tiny spherical seeds, which then give rise to multiple nanowires growing at speeds between 1 and 15 nanometers per second. Crucially, these nascent wires don’t grow in isolation—they compete for material, with neighboring structures influencing each other’s growth rates and branching patterns.
The breakthrough didn’t stop at observation. When the team introduced bismuth nanoparticles as seeds, everything changed. Bismuth didn’t just sit back—it actively reshaped the landscape. It increased the number of nucleation sites, triggering the formation of more, denser nanowires with intricate, fern-like branches. Even more striking, follow-up electrodeposition experiments showed that bismuth lowered the reduction potential needed for tellurium deposition by up to 200 millivolts, making the process more energy-efficient and significantly boosting the amount of tellurium deposited under the same conditions.
This isn’t just a laboratory curiosity. The fact that insights from the microscope directly translated into improved synthesis methods means researchers can now design better nanostructures with greater control. "One of the most exciting aspects of this work is that the behavior we observed in the liquid cell translated into conventional electrodeposition experiments," said Dr. Zou. That bridge between observation and application opens new pathways for tuning materials at the atomic level, without relying on guesswork or trial-and-error.
As demand grows for advanced nanomaterials in flexible electronics, quantum devices, and sustainable energy systems, the ability to watch—and then steer—nanostructures as they form could become a cornerstone of materials engineering. This study, a collaboration between the University of Manchester, Sun Yat-sen University, and the Beijing Institute of Technology, doesn’t just reveal how nanowires grow—it shows how science can guide them, one atom at a time.