Synthesis of photoluminescent colloidal CdS nanocrystals via a non-injection method

This paper reports a novel method of synthesising CdS nanocrystals (NCs), which 1-octadecene as non-coordinating solvent, cadmium acetate and sulfur as Cd and S sources, and myristic acid as surfactant were used respectively. X-ray powder diffraction, dynamic light scattering and scanning electron microscopy revealed that the as-prepared CdS NCs are highly monodispersed and possess a zinc blende crystal structure. The nucleation and growth stages of the NCs could be automatically separated in a homogeneous system with nucleation initiators, namely, tetraethylthiuram disulfide and 2,2'-dithiobisbenzothiazole. To a certain extent, the size of CdS NCs could be controlled by altering the quantity of nucleation initiators and the reaction time. The photoluminescence spectra of the CdS NCs with narrow photoluminescence emission peaks are dependent on the size of the particles.