N, N-dimethylformamide-mediated synthesis of copper sulfide powder and characterization

Copper sulfide powders were successfully synthesized by solvothermal method with CuCl₂·2H₂O as the copper source, N, N-dimethylformamide as the reaction medium, L-cysteine, thiourea, thioacetamide as the sulfur source respectively at 130°C for 8h. The crystallinity, phase structure, morphology, composition and optical property of the as-prepared samples were investigated by X-ray diffraction(XRD), X-ray photo-electron spectroscopy(XPS), field-emission scanning electron microscopy(FESEM), Transmission electron microscope(TEM) and UV-vis absorption spectroscopy respectively. The results showed that structure and morphology of the products were significantly influenced by the sulfur source. The CuS product synthesized in dimethylformamide(DMF) with L-cysteine as the sulfur source was amorphous stacked by numerous nanoparticles disorderly, but those synthesized with thiourea and thioacetamide as the sulfur source respectively were microspheres composed of large numbers of nanorods. The morphology and form of CuS synthesized with different sulfur sources were discussed. And the possible growth mechanism of products with different morphologies was expatiated based on the experimental results.