Growth and characterization of oriented cadmium sulphide nanocrystals under Langmuir-Blodgett monolayer of arachidic acid

Abstract

Cadmium sulphide nanocrystals were grown at room temperature (20 °C) under arachidic acid monolayers floating over an aqueous solution of CdCl2 inside an enclosed Langmuir-Blodgett set-up, through slow infusion of H2S gas. X-ray diffraction spectra suggest an oriented growth of the crystallites. The particle sizes were found to increase with duration of exposure to the H2S gas. Atomic force microscopy indicated that the particles were nearly circular pellets with uniform morphology throughout. In Raman spectra, the FWHM of the LO phonon was found to be large (≈20 cm-1) for all the films grown with different exposure times in H2S gas, and was found to reduce to 8 cm-1 after annealing a typical sample at 500 °C for 45 min.