Ethanol amine-assisted solvothermal growth of wurtzite-structured ZnS thin nanorods

One-step synthesis of wurtzite-structured ZnS thin nanorods with mean diameters of about 6 nm is achieved by a novel ethanol amine (EA)-assisted solvothermal approach adopting ZnO and Na2S2O3 center dot 5H(2)O as starting reagents. The as-prepared ZnS nanorods are well-crystallized single crystals with growth direction along [001]. The effects of solvents, sources of zinc and sulfur are investigated in details and it is found that EA solvent plays a key role to control both the phase and morphology of the ZnS nanorods. The possible growth mechanism involving EA-mediated nucleation and one-dimensional (1D) growth is discussed. The optical properties of the wurtzite ZnS thin nanorods are characterized by UV-Vis absorption and photoluminescence spectra. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.