Synthesis of high-luminescent cadmium sulfide nanocrystallites by a novel single-source precursor route

Highly luminescent cadmium sulfide nanocrystallites have been successfully produced by the thermolysis of a novel single-source precursor, cadmium O, O′-dialkyldithiophosphates, which were dissolved in oleic amine. The microstructure and morphology of the as-prepared CdS nanoparticles were characterized using X-ray diffraction, transmission electron microscopy and high resolution transmission electron microscopy. It was found that the as-prepared CdS nanoparticles show a narrow size distribution and high crystallinity. The optical properties of these samples were examined by UV–visible and photoluminescence spectroscopy. Not only an intensive red-light-emitting luminescence phenomenon derived from the solution of the CdS nanocrystallites can be observed easily at room temperature, the band gap of CdS nanocrystallites can also be tailored by changing the length of substituted alkyl chain of single-source precursors.