Synthesis of fine US powder from direct in-situ reduction of sulphur and cadmium salts in aqueous N,N′-dimethylformamide

Cadmium sulphide nano-powder has been synthesized in aqueous DMF by direct in-situ reduction of sulphur and its reaction with cadmium chloride and cadmium acetate. The generation of hydrogen ion from the splitting of water has been effectively utilized in the current method. The bright yellow product has been characterized by solid-state UV-visible spectroscopy, powder XRD measurement and SEM/EDAX analysis. The XRD measurements suggest that both cubic and hexagonal cadmium sulphide powder can be obtained from the current method. The particles size was estimated to about 100 nm by applying Scherrer's equation. The reflectance measurement showed an absorption band at about 500 nm, suggesting a small blue shift in band gap energy with respect to bulk powder. It is found that the powder has good morphology when scanned through the SEM. (C) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.