Controllable preparation and optical limiting properties of CdS nanocomposites in KGM-AA soft template

•The controllable preparation of CdS nanoparticles was realized by a biodegradable soft template.•The optical limiting performances increase with increasing CdS content in the composites.•The mechanism of optical limiting may originated from the self-focusing behavior of CdS nanoparticles.

Konjac glucomannan acrylates (KGM-AA) were used as soft templates to prepare the CdS nanoparticles. The structure and properties of the CdS nanoparticles were characterized and evaluated with XRD, TEM, HRTEM, TGA, UV–vis, Raman spectrum, optical limiting and nonlinear optical analyses (Z-scan technique), respectively. It was interesting to find that nanosized CdS particles successfully grew in situ and uniformly dispersed in the KGM-AA soft templates and their size and density could be effectively controlled by varying the feed ratio of Cd2+/KGM-AA. When the feed ratio is up to 17.47% (wt%), the material exhibits the best optical limiting performance with limiting threshold of 367 mJ/cm2, and good nonlinear optical properties with nonlinear absorption coefficient (α2) of 6.6023 × 10−10 cm W−1 and nonlinear refractive index (n2) of 1.27 × 10−4 cm2/GW. The optical limiting performances increase with the increase of CdS content in the composites. The optical limiting mechanism is mainly originated from the self-focusing behavior of CdS nanoparticles.

Graphical abstractThe controllable preparation of CdS nanoparticles with the optical limiting performances was realized by varying the feed ratio of Cd2+ to KGM-AA. The mechanism of optical limiting originated from the self-focusing behavior of CdS nanoparticles.Figure optionsDownload full-size imageDownload as PowerPoint slide