Synthesis of single crystalline CdS nanorods by a PVP-assisted solvothermal method

Abstract

A wide range of cadmium sulphide (CdS) 1-D nanocrystals were prepared using a novel polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP)-assisted solvothermal method that employed ethylenediamine (en) as the solvent. X-ray diffraction (XRD) results shows that the nanorods are of hexagonal structure, and are further identified as single crystalline in selected area electron diffraction (SAED). The optical properties of CdS were characterized by optical absorption spectra and photoluminescence spectra. A series of experiments were carried out with different concentrations of PVP, and all the results confirm that the dosage of PVP is a vital factor in the morphology and optical properties of CdS. Moreover when the best dosage of 0.8 g/50 mL was used, continuous single-crystalline nanorods with regular and smooth morphology were obtained. The mechanism for the PVP-assisted solvothermal synthesis of CdS 1-D nanostructures was also investigated, and the reaction model of CdS/PVP was first presented.