Synthesis and characterization of copper sulfide nanoparticles obtained by the polyol method

Copper sulfide nanoparticles were synthesized using copper nitrate and sodium sulfide as raw materials in the presence of ethylene glycol at different temperatures, by the polyol method. The reaction synthesis was observed to take place within a fraction of a second and agglomerated particles with a mean size of 10 nm were obtained. The effect of temperature on the size and morphology of the particles was studied. A number of techniques for nanoparticle characterization were used, including X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, transmission electron microscopy and ultraviolet-visible-near infrared techniques. The characterization revealed the presence of CuS (covellite). The band gap energy value for the nanoparticles was estimated to be 2.15 eV. © 2011 American Scientific Publishers.