Colloidal synthesis of Sb2S3 nanorods/bars with strong preferred orientation

We report the synthesis of antimony trisulfide (Sb₂S₃) nanorods/bars via a simple, low-cost and colloidal synthetic method. The as-synthesized Sb₂S₃ nanorods/bars with different heating times from the moment of appearance of the Sb₂S₃ precipitate at 240 °C are the longest and thinnest in the beginning (diameters of 50-100 nm and lengths of 3-5 μm). UV/Vis absorption spectroscopy reveals that the optical band gap energy of the Sb₂S₃ nanorods/bars slightly decreases with increasing the heating times in the range of 1.54, 1.50 to 1.47 eV at the red part of the solar spectrum. The structure of Sb₂S₃ for all free samples was refined down to the R-factor of 9.57, 5.43 and 6.19%. The refinement showed that Sb₂S₃ powder belongs to the orthorhombic type with space group Pbnm (no. 62). It was found that Sb₂S₃ nanorods/bars predominantly grow along the [010] direction. The preferred orientation parameter (τ) refined against experimental data is quite high and is found to be 1.42, 1.21 and 1.19 for all three samples observed. A decrease in unit cell parameter b followed by increasing the heating times was observed.