Preparation of cauliflower-like bismuth sulfide and its application in electrochemical sensor

A solvothermal process was developed for the preparation of cauliflower-like Bi2S3 from N,N-dimethylformamide (DMF) solution of bismuth nitrate [Bi(NO3)3·5H2O] and thioacetamide (TAA) with 2-undecyl-1-dithioureido-ethyl-imidazoline (SUDEI) as the morphology-controlling agent. The obtained Bi2S3 products were characterized by transmission electron microscopy (TEM), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and X-ray diffraction (XRD), etc. The sensing properties of Bi2S3 with different morphologies were evaluated by the electrochemical analysis of dopamine (DA) and ascorbic acid (AA) coexisting solution. The results showed that cauliflower-like Bi2S3 showed a better resolving ability than rod-like Bi2S3 for the simultaneous determination of DA and AA.