Free-standing [0 0 1]-oriented one-dimensional crystal-structured antimony selenide films for self-powered flexible near-infrared photodetectors

•Highly (0001)-textured Sb was used to grow [001]-oriented Sb2Se3 film by selenization process.•Van der Waals interaction enables a free-standing Sb2Se3 film for flexible device fabrication.•A new strategy was developed for flexible optoelectronic devices through film separating and transferring method.•The flexible Sb2Se3 photodetector exhibits excellent detection performance for near-infrared light at zero bias.