A facile single-source approach to urchin-like NiS nanostructures

Highly regular urchin-like NiS architectures were synthesized on a large scale by solvothermal treatment of a single-source molecular precursor of nickel diethyldithiocarbamate [Ni(DDTC)2] at 180 °C. The urchin-like architectures, with an average diameter of ∼16 μm, were composed of single-crystalline NiS nanoneedles with a diameter of ∼100 nm and a length of up to 8 μm. It was revealed that the solvent medium can strongly affect the composition and crystal phases of the products, and a surfactant is crucial to form urchin-like patterns. Based on the experimental observations, a probable three-step growth mechanism is proposed to explain the formation of the urchin-like nanostructures. The optical properties were investigated by ultraviolet-visible (UV–vis) absorption spectroscopy. This simple and mild single-source solvothermal route may be expected to extend to fabricating other inorganic nano-/micro-superstructures with novel morphologies and complex architectures.