Fabrication of selenium/carbon core-shell submicrowires and carbon submicrotubes by a facile solution process

We show a facile one-step surfactant-assisted solution process to fabricate selenium/carbon (Se/C) coaxial core-shell submicrowires and their transformation into carbon submicrotubes by dissolution of the Se cores at ambient temperature. The formation process of the Se/C core-shell submicrowires was investigated. The results of the investigation and further experiments confirm that the thickness of the carbon shell could be tailored by controlling the experimental conditions. The as-synthesized Se/C core-shell submicrowires and the carbon submicrotubes are potentially useful in applications such as in nanodevices or biomedicine.