Facile preparation of copper sulfide nanoparticles from perovskite templates containing bromide anions

Copper sulfide nanoparticles with mean diameter about 1 nm have been prepared in copper bromide-based perovskite organic–inorganic crystal hybrid templates (CnH2n+1NH3)2CuBr4 (abbreviated as CnCuBr, n = 10, 12, 16 and 18) by reacting their spin-casting films with H2S gas. X-ray powder diffraction (XRD) reveals the layered structure of CnCuBr templates. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM), UV–visible (UV–vis) absorption spectroscopy and photoluminescence spectroscopy (PL) are respectively adopted to characterize the products morphologies and optical properties. The obtained results indicate an important effect of template anions on size control of the formed particles. Such a preparation method also provides an effective way to incorporate the functional inorganic nanoparticles into the structured organic matrices.