Novel single-source precursors approach to prepare highly uniform Bi2S3 and Sb2S3 nanorods via a solvothermal treatment

High-quality Bi2S3 and Sb2S3 nanorods on a large scale were successfully synthesized by the solvothermal treatment of a novel kind of single-source precursors (SSPs), metal di-n-octyl-dithiophosphates (M[S2P(OC8H17)(2)](3), M = Bi, Sb). The X-ray powder diffraction (XRD) patterns show that both of these products belong to the orthorhombic M2S3 phase. The experimental results show that the Bi2S3 nanorods can be easily prepared in air at >= 140 degrees C for 5 h in the presence of oleylamine. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) images show the rodlike appearance of Bi2S3 with a diameter of 7-21 nm and length of several hundred nanometers under the various reaction conditions. The effects of reaction parameters, such as reaction time, temperature, and concentration of the precursor, on the growth of nanorods were discussed in detail. The mechanism of the formation process of the nanorods was proposed. We also demonstrate that this method can be extended to the synthesis of Sb2S3 nanorods, which have an average diameter in the range of 45 nm and a length in the range of 1 mu m. The optical absorption experiment shows that these nanorods are semiconductor with bandwidth E-g = 1.67 eV for Bi2S3 and 1.76 eV for Sb2S3, both near to the optimum for photovoltaic conversion, suggesting these nanorods could be used in solar energy and photoelectronic applications.