A Simple Surfactant-Free Solution Phase Synthesis of Flower-like In2S3 Hierarchitectures and their Photocatalytic Activities

Flower-like In2S3 hierarchical nanostructures were successfully prepared via a facile solution-phase route, using thiacetamide as both sulfur source and capping agent. Our experimental results demonstrated that the morphology of these In2S3 nanostructures can be easily modified by changing the ratio of In(NO3)3/thiacetamide. With the ratio increasing from 1:1.5 to 1:6, the In2S3 crystals exhibited flower-like morphology of varying size. XRD and HRTEM of the flowers revealed the cubic structure of In2S3; morphological studies examined by SEM and TEM showed that the synthesized In2S3 nanostructure was a flower-like hierarchitecture assembled from nanoscale flakes. XPS and EDX analysis confirmed the stoichiometry of In2S3 nanoflowers. The optical properties were investigated by UV-vis DRS, which indicated that the In2S3 nanoflower samples possess a band gap from 1.90 to 1.97 eV. Furthermore, photocatalytic activity studies revealed that the prepared In2S3 nanoflowers exhibit an excellent photocatalytic performance, degrading rapidly the aqueous methylene blue dye solution under visible light irradiation. These results suggest that In2S3 nanoflowers will be a promising candidate for a photocatalyst working under the visible light range.