Solvothermal synthesis of flower-like copper indium sulphide microcrystalline and its characterization

Copper indium sulphide products were synthesized via a mild solvothermal approach (at 200°C for 12h )involving CuCl₂ · 2H₂O as the copper source, InCl₃ as the indium source, thiourea as the sulfur source, N, N-dimethylformamide, ethylene glycol, ethanol and polyethylene glycol-300 as the reaction medium respectively. Morphology, structure, and phase constituents of the as-prepared CuInS₂ products were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), X-ray photo-electron spectroscopy (XPS) and field-emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM). The results showed that the CuInS₂ products synthesized in dimethylformamide (DMF), ethylene glycol, ethanol and polyethylene glycol-300 respectively had flower-like morphology composed of large numbers of nanoplates and the thickness of CuInS₂ nanoplates was found to vary from 100-200 nm. A possible formation mechanism was put forward and discussed based on the experimental results.