Synthesis of CdS flower-like hierarchical microspheres as electrode material for electrochemical performance

•The adjacent particle coalesces together forming spherical particles.•The average crystalline size of CdS nanoparticles was found to be ∼3 nm.•In the case of spherical crystallite, is given by L = 3/4 D.•The CdS nanocrystal exhibits a direct band gap of 2.4 eV.•The microspheres are dispersed with good monodispersity.

We report in this paper, a facile hydrothermal route for the preparation of CdS nanocrystals at room temperature (RT). Composition, structure and morphology of the products were analyzed and characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD) confirms that the hydrothermal treatment at 180 °C for periods ranging from 0 to 1440 min caused no significant modification of the long range order structure subjected to hydrothermal treatment. From the XRD analysis the diffraction peaks pertaining to 26.75°, 43.89° and 52.34° are attributed to the (111), (220) and (311) planes of cubic zinc blende structure. The Photoluminescence (PL) spectra are dominated by a strong narrow band edge emission tunable in the blue region of the visible spectra indicating the narrow size distribution of CdS nanocrystals. TEM observation shows that the CdS nanocrystals synthesized by hydrothermal synthesis are well dispersed and the average crystallite size was found to be ∼10 nm. The confocal microscopic studies reveal that each flower like spheres is due to Ostwald's ripening with numerous nanoparticles aggregating a surface.

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