Room temperature synthesis of flower-like CuS nanostructures under assistance of ionic liquid

Abstract

Flower-like CuS nanostructures have been synthesized via a liquid precipitation route by the reaction between CuCl₂·2H₂O and thioacetamide (CH₃CSNH₂, TAA) in the ionic liquid 1-butyl-3-methyl imidazole six hexafluorophosphoric acid salts ([BMIM][PF₆]) aqueous solution at room temperature. The products were characterized by X-ray powder diffraction (XRD), field emission scanning electronic microscopy (FESEM), Brunauer-Emmett-Teller (BET), Ultraviolet-Visible Spectrophotometer (UV-Vis) and Photoluminescence (PL) techniques. The as-prepared CuS nanostructures have a mean diameter of about 1 μm. A plausible mechanism was proposed to explain the formation of CuS nanostructures. The effects of experimental parameters on the formation of the products were also explored. With BET theory, it is found that the as-prepared CuS nanostructures have a specific area of 39 m²/g. The Barrett-Joyner-Halenda (BJH) pore size distribution of the as-prepared CuS nanostructures presents smaller pores centers about 60 nm. The UV-Vis and PL curves indicate that the as-prepared CuS nanostructures are promising candidates for the development of photoelectric devices.

Keywords

nanostructures / liquid precipitation method / ionic liquid

References

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the Scientific Research Foundation for the Returned Overseas Chinese Scholars (No. 2008-17), Ministry of Personnel of the People’s Republic of China, and the Natural Science Foundation Project of Chong Qing (No. CSTC2007BB4332). The authors would like to thank Prof. Dingfei Zhang, College of Materials Science and Engineering, Chongqing University, for his assistances with FESEM characterization.

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2014 Higher Education Press and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg