title: Growth of Cu2S ultrathin nanowires in a binary surfactant solvent.
abstract: We demonstrate a facile solution-phase method for the synthesis of single-crystal, high aspect ratio, and ultrathin nanowires of hexagonal-phase Cu2S by thermal decomposition of CuS2CNEt2 in a mixed surfactant solvent of dodecanethiol and oleic acid at 160 degrees C. Cu2S nanowires can be controllably synthesized with a diameter as thin as 1.7 nm and length up to tens of micrometers; they are usually aligned in the form of bundles with a thickness of hundreds of nanometers. Based on the experimental results, the formation mechanism of the ultrathin nanowires has been properly proposed. Some key synthetic parameters, which have a significant effect on the sizes and shapes of the products, have also been investigated in detail. UV-vis spectroscopy measurement reveals that the resultant ultrathin nanowires show a strong quantum size effect.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui 230026, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Zhaoping
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Dan
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.forename: Jianbo
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Liang
authors.forename: Jianming
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Shen
authors.forename: Shuyuan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Yitai
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Qian