Shape-controlled template-driven growth of large CuS hexagonal nanoplates

  • PDF / 2,802,481 Bytes
  • 7 Pages / 595.276 x 790.866 pts Page_size
  • 100 Downloads / 149 Views

DOWNLOAD

REPORT


Bull Mater Sci (2020)43:323 https://doi.org/10.1007/s12034-020-02294-1

Sadhana(0123456789().,-volV)FT3](012345 6789().,-volV)

Shape-controlled template-driven growth of large CuS hexagonal nanoplates CHAITALI SOW

, GANGAIAH METTELA and GIRIDHAR U KULKARNI*

Chemistry and Physics of Materials Unit, Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research, Bengaluru 560064, India *Author for correspondence ([email protected]) MS received 18 August 2020; accepted 17 September 2020 Abstract. Ultrathin 2D metal sulphide nanostructures have revealed extraordinary properties, applications and thus, the subject matter of current research. However, synthesis of shape-controlled large-sized (approximately few lms) plates/ sheets are not well known, specifically due to the colloidal synthesis process resulting in the distribution of shape/size. Here, we report the template-assisted growth of large-sized CuS nanoplates (*0.5–9 lm) by simple wet chemistry, where the Au microplates serve as a template. The Au microplates act as seed and facilitate the Au-Cu via epitaxial growth of Cu. Later, the Au-Cu acts as the source of Cu and in presence of aqueous S2-, the CuS hexagons form, however, the edge of the hexagons are parallel to the Au seed and thus, hinting to be controlled by the seed. Interestingly, the substrate independent Au-Cu can even provide the platform for the spiral nanoplates, by simply decorating the outer surface of the Cu with pillar-like features. Keywords.

1.

Hexagonal plates; template-driven growth; semiconductors; nanoplates; spiral; pillar structure.

Introduction

Successful exfoliation of graphene has articulated immense interest in the scientific community in search of new 2D nanostructures with similar interesting optical, electrical and mechanical properties [1]. These 2D nanostructures include transition metal dichalcogenides (such as MoS2, WS2) [2], hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) [3], metal oxides (TiO2, ZnO) [4,5], metal chalcogenides (CdS, CdSe, PbS, Bi2Se3, CuS) [6–11], noble metals (Au, Ag) [12,13] and so on. The current research interests are directed towards the synthesis of large flat nano-sheets/-plates to be used as substrates for electrode materials (in batteries) [14], active material for field effect transistor [15], template for epitaxial growth of other 2D plates/sheets [16] and so on. Among the many known synthetic processes, chemical vapour deposition (CVD), mechanical exfoliation (for layered material), wet chemical synthesis are the most prevalent [17], where the latter possesses easily tunable and versatile fabrication opportunities for large thin plates. The as-grown sheets can be used as template for the growth of other 2D materials resulting in heterojunctions [18] or

This article is part of the Topical Collection: SAMat Focus Issue.

heterostructures for plasmonic applications [19,20] or photocatalysis [8]. This work is focussed on 2D CuS plates. The wet chemical synthesis processes of CuS triangular/hexagonal nanoplates include solvothermal methods [11], soft templatin