Novel approach for electrochemical preparation of sulfur nanoparticles

An electrochemical method is presented for the preparation of sulfur nanoparticles (S-NPs) from thiosulfate ion. The particle size of the S-NPs can be adjusted between 35 and 65 nm by varying parameters such as the initial concentration of thiosulfate. The solvent/non-solvent precipitation method was also applied to the preparation of S-NPs for comparison. In this case, the use of hot alcohol and cold water as solvent/non-solvent system along with 100 ml center dot min(-1) flow rate for co-mixing of non-solvent resulted in the formation of S-NPs in a typical size of 250 nm that are fairly homogeneous in shape and have a narrow particle size distribution. The results revealed that, in comparison to the precipitation process, the electro-synthetic method offers simplicity, higher efficiency, improved size control, and less environmental contamination.