Fabrication of well-aligned CdS nanotubes by CVD-template method

Well-aligned CdS nanotubes have been synthesized within the nanochannels of the porous anodic alumina (PAA) membranes by pyrolyzing cadmium bis(diethyldithiocarbamate) [Cd(S2CNEt2)2] at 400 °C. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) show that the CdS nanotubes are highly ordered with uniform diameter in range of 80-150 nm and the length up to tens of microns. X-ray diffraction (XRD), Raman spectrum, energy-dispersive spectroscopy (EDS) and selected-area electron diffraction (SAED) demonstrate that the nanotubes are composed of pure hexagonal phase polycrystalline CdS. The synthetic route can, in principle, be extended to fabricate other nanotubes of a wide range of semiconductors.