Synthesis, structure and optical properties of SnS2, CdS and HgS nanoparticles from thioacetate precursor

•CdS, SnS2 and HgS have been synthesized by self-propagating combustion technique.•Crystal structures of the isolated metal sulfides have been presented.•The optical band gap has been measured and compared with the bulk.

Cd(II), Sn(II) and Hg(II) complexes of calcium thioacetate have been used as single source precursors to synthesize CdS, SnS2 and HgS nanoparticles by using self-propagating combustion method. The structures of the obtained metal sulfides have been characterized by XRD, SEM and TEM. The crystal structure has been solved from the powder diffraction. The crystal solutions indicated that SnS2 and HgS crystallize in cubic system with cell parameters a = 3.6710 and 5.8537 Å, respectively. CdS crystallizes in hexagonal system with a lattice constants, a = 4.136, b = 4.136 and c = 6.713 Å. The sizes of the prepared nanoparticles were estimated as 17, 25 and 24 nm for CdS, SnS2 and HgS samples, respectively. The optical band gap (Eg) measurements showed allowed direct electronic transitions for the photon absorption in the investigated samples. Eg values equal 2.77, 1.75 and 2.49 eV for CdS, SnS2 and HgS nanoparticles, respectively.

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