In air synthesis of hexagonal Cd1 − xZnxS nanoparticles from single-source molecular precursors

Ternary II-VI semiconductors have many excellent physical and chemical properties, and can be used in multiple technical fields. But their previous solid state synthesis methods usually need high reaction temperatures and rigorous conditions (e.g., in vacuum or under the protection of inert gases). In this letter, we report a novel solid state synthesis of hexagonal Cd1 − xZnxS (x = 0-1) nanoparticles in air from a class of solid air-stable single-source molecular precursors (cadmium zinc bis(N,N-diethyldithiocarbamate, Cd1 − xZnx-(DDTC)2) by two facile steps: firstly, Cd1 − xZnx-(DDTC)2 (x = 0-1) were prepared directly through the precipitation reactions of stoichiometric cadmium sulfate, zinc acetate and sodium diethyldithiocarbamate in distilled water under the ambient condition (8 °C, 1 atmospheric pressure); secondly, hexagonal Cd1 − xZnxS (x = 0-1) nanoparticles were produced simply via thermolysis of the single-source precursors in air at 300 °C for 3 h. The proposed method may serve as a kind of simple, mild and cheap way to synthesize nanomaterials of many ternary metal sulfide semiconductors, which have promising applications in the photocatalysis and optoelectronic devices.