Growth of copper sulfide dendrites and nanowires from elemental sulfur on TEM Cu gridsunder ambient conditions

Abstract

Copper sulfide dendrites and subsequent uniform nanowires up to tens of micrometers longcan be grown on carbon-coated transmission electron microscopy (TEM) Cu grids fromelemental sulfur at room temperature under ambient conditions without any solvent andsurfactants. TEM and high-resolution TEM studies demonstrated the morphology evolution ofCu2S from dendrites into ultra-long nanowires with increasing ageingtime. The sulfur species influenced significantly the growth rate ofCu2S dendrites and nanowires, but the final morphology remained the same. The nativeoxide on the surface of Cu grids played a critical role in the formation ofCu2S dendrites and nanowires. The crystal structures and phase purity ofCu2S samples were confirmed by x-ray diffraction (XRD) and energy dispersive x-ray spectroscopy(EDX). A solid–liquid–solid growth model may be considered a potential mechanism inCu2S morphology evolution on the basis of the experimental results. Most importantly, the presentstudy provides a simple and environmentally friendly route for the growth of one-dimensional (1D)Cu2S on Cu substrate.