title: Bismuth sulphides prepared by thermal and hydrothermal decomposition of a single source precursor: the effect of reaction parameters on morphology, microstructure and catalytic activity.
abstract: Bismuth sulphides were prepared by thermal and hydrothermal decomposition of a precursor, bismuth tris-diethyldithiocarbamate, at different temperatures and times. The obtained results showed that the thermal decomposition of the precursor in a tube furnace was not very appropriate to control particle size and morphology. XRD results showed that at 310 °C the precursor was not fully decomposed but at 500 °C besides the orthorhombic bismuth sulphide, the metallic bismuth also started to be formed. At the highest temperature 1D crystals were formed with an apparent mean crystal size of 138 nm. However, hydrothermal decomposition was shown to be a very suitable method to control particle size and morphology just by varying some parameters such as temperature and time. For 6 hours reaction time, as temperature increased, the apparent mean crystal size decreased. The particle morphology was also very affected by this parameter, at 180 °C only 1D particles (nanorods) with lengths varying from 25 to 4700 nm were formed but at 200 °C not only 1D particles but also 2D particles were (nanosheets) obtained. Bismuth sulphide particles obtained at 180 °C and 24 hours reaction time were shown to be formed mostly by 2D particles compared to those obtained at 6 hours. It was clearly seen that the increase in reaction time and temperature led to the formation of bi-dimensional particles. The presence of 1D crystals in the samples obtained by hydrothermal decomposition at 180 °C/6 h and 180 °C/24 h is responsible for their high catalytic efficiency towards methylene blue dye degradation.
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Química, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Av. Antônio Carlos, 6627, Belo Horizonte, MG CEP 31270-901, Brazil. arilzaporto@yahoo.com.br.
authors.forename: Guilherme Oliveira
authors.initials: GO
authors.lastname: Siqueira
authors.forename: Arilza
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: de Oliveira Porto
authors.forename: Marcelo Machado
authors.initials: MM
authors.lastname: Viana
authors.forename: Herculano Vieira
authors.initials: HV
authors.lastname: da Silva
authors.forename: Yara Gonçalves
authors.initials: YG
authors.lastname: de Souza
authors.forename: Hugo Wallison Alves
authors.initials: HW
authors.lastname: da Silva
authors.forename: Geraldo Magela
authors.initials: GM
authors.lastname: de Lima
authors.forename: Tulio
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Matencio