The effect of precursor concentration, temperature and capping group on the morphology of CdS nanoparticles

A novel ligand to the synthesis of nanoparticles has been employed in this study. A Tetramethylthiuram disulphide cadmium complex (abundant in sulphur atoms) was used as a single-source precursor for the synthesis of CdS nanoparticles. The CdS nanoparticles were synthesized under various conditions and were characterized using UV/Vis, PL, XRD and TEM. The influence of the precursor concentration, temperature and capping environment as factors affecting the morphology and size of the nanoparticles was investigated. We observed that with an increase in precursor concentration, there was an increase in particle sizes and the morphology evolved from spherical to rod-shaped nanoparticles. An increase in temperature showed only evidence of increasing the particle sizes whilst the capping environment had a profound influence on the morphology of the nanoparticles. The work reported in this paper demonstrate that factors such as temperature, concentration and the capping group affects the growth of nanoparticles either in size and/or shape.