Synthesis Of Antimony Sulfide Nanomaterials With Different Morphologies And Its Photocatalytic Performance

In this paper,Sb₂S₃ nanomaterials with various morphologies and sizes were prepared by refluxing and hydrothermal method. The products were characterized by various techniques. The possible mechanism and the photocatalytic properties of the product were studied. Sb₂S₃, a direct band gap semiconductor, with is a useful binary chalcogenide and has many potential applications in thermoelectric cooling technologies, solar energy conversion, optoelectronics in the IR region. This thesis mainly includes three parts: Synthesis of Sb₂S₃ nanorods by refluxing method; synthesis of Sb₂S₃ nanostruetures with different morphologies via a refluxing polyol process; preparation of Sb₂S₃ nanorods via hydrothermal method. And photocatalytic performance of all the synthesized products were studied, respectively.Antimony trisulfide nanorods were successfully synthesized at 185℃for 15 h via refluxing method, using Sb2O3, sulfur powders and sodium borohydride as starting materials, ethylene glycol as the solvent. The phase, morphologies, compositions and optical properties of the products were investigated by XRD, EDS, SEM, TEM, HRTEM, SAED and UV-Vis techniques. The sunlight was used as light source to investigate the photocatalytic activity of Sb₂S₃ nanorods for the degradation of methylene blue. The results show that the Sb₂S₃ nanorods with a single crystal structure can be obtained under refluxing at 185℃for 15 h. The nanorods are typically 75¹10 nm in diameter and 2⁵μm in length, and are orthorhombic phase with calculated cell parameters of a=1.123 nm, b=1.136 nm and c=0.383 nm. UV-Vis analysis exhibits that Sb₂S₃ nanorods are a semiconductor with bandwidth Eg =1.52 eV. Photocatalytic tests show that the as-prepared Sb₂S₃ nanorods have high photocatalytic degradation rate for methylene blue under sunlight, and the photocatalytic degradation rate of methylene blue is up to 85.07 % after 20 min degradation, exhibiting higher visible-light activity. In addition, the possible growth mechanism of Sb₂S₃ nanorods was also discussed.Antimony sulfide nanomaterials with a diversity of well-defined morphologies were successfully synthesized, by refluxing antimony trichloride, sulfur powders and sodium borohydride in various solvents at suitable reaction conditions. The products were characterized by XRD, EDS, SEM, TEM, HRTEM, SAED and UV-Vis techniques. The results indicate that Sb₂S₃ nanostructures with different morphologies, including rod-like, chrysanthemu-like, bowknot-like, straw-bundled-like, sheet-like, hollow ball-like, can be obtained under different experimental conditions. Photocatalytic tests show that the as-prepared Sb₂S₃ nanorods have high photocatalytic degradation rate for methylene blue under sunlight, and the photocatalytic degradution rate of methylene blue is up to 85.01 % after 20 min degradation, exhibiting obvious visible-light activity. In addition, the possible growth mechanism was discussed.Antimony trisulfide nanorods were successfully synthesized at 180℃for 20 h under hydrothermal conditions, using antimony trichloride and sodium thiosulfate as source materials, poly(vinyl alcohol)-124 as the assistant. Products were investigated by XRD, EDS, SEM, and UV-Vis techniques. The characterization results show that the samples are orthorhombic Sb₂S₃ phase with cell parameters of a=1.120 nm, b=1.135 nm and c=0.385 nm, and 70¹20 nm in diameter and up to several microns in length. UV-Vis analysis exhibits that Sb₂S₃ nanorods are a semiconductor with bandwidth Eg =1.53 eV. Photocatalytic test show that the photocatalytic degradation rate of methylene blue reaches 86.68% as the product is exposed to the sunlight for only 20 minutes, exhibiting obvious visible-light activity.