Hydrothermal Synthesis of Sb2S3Nanorods Using Iodine via Redox Mechanism

Crystalline antimony sulfide (Sb2S3) with nanorods morphology was successfully prepared via hydrothermal method by the reaction of elemental sulfur, antimony, and iodine as starting materials with high yield at 180∘C for 24 h. Using oxidation reagent like iodine as an initiator of redox reaction to prepare Sb2S3 is reported for first time. The powder X-ray diffraction pattern shows the Sb2S3 crystals belong to the orthorhombic phase with calculated lattice parameters, a=1.120 nm, b=1.128 nm, and c=0.383 nm. The quantification of energy-dispersive X-ray spectrometry analysis peaks gives an atomic ratio of 2 : 3 for Sb : S. TEM and SEM studies reveal the appearance of the as-prepared Sb2S3 is rodlike which is composed of nanorods with the typical width of 50–140 nm and length of up to 4 μm. The PL emission indicates that band gap of Sb2S3 is around 2.50 ev, indicating a considerable blue shift relative to the bulk. A formation mechanism of Sb2S3 nanostructure is proposed