Evolution of SnS nanostructures – Their structural, thermal and transport studies

Nanocrystalline SnS with different morphologies like nanoflowers, nanoflakes are successfully synthesized from SnCl2.2H2O and NH2CSNH2 by solvothermal process with ethylenediamine solvent at 200 °C for three different reaction times. XRD studies reveal that in all the cases pure SnS phase exists. Surface morphology of these as-synthesized powder samples are employed by scanning electron microscopy and transmission electron microscopy whereas compositional analysis and chemical purity of these samples are observed by energy dispersive analysis of X-ray. Thermal stability studies of these nanostructured powder samples are carried out by thermogravimetric analysis at temperature range from 30 to 900 °C at surrounding atmosphere of Ar. Kinetic parameters such as activation energy (E) for the degradation, Arrhenius parameter (A) and the entropy change (ΔS) are also obtained by using two different kinetic models. SnS nanostructured thin films show good dark conductivity with thermal activation energy is calculated as around 0.5 eV.