Electron Microscopy Study of Exotic Nanostructures of Cadmium Sulfide

In this article, two simple methods, evaporation-condensation and catalytic thermal evaporation, were used to investigate the synthesis of CdS nanostructures for nanoscale optoelectronic applications. To understand their growth mechanisms, various electron microscopy and microanalysis techniques were utilized in characterizing their morphologies, internal structures, growth directions and elemental compositions. The electron microscopy study reveals that when using the evaporation-condensation method, branched CdS nanorods and self-assembled arrays of CdS nanorods were synthesized at 800°C and 1000°C, respectively. Instead of morphological differences, both types of CdS nanorods grew along the [0001] direction. However, when using the catalytic thermal evaporation method (Au as the catalyst), patterned CdS nanowires and nanobelts were formed at the temperature region of 500–600°C and 600–750°C, respectively. Their growth direction was along the direction [1010] instead of [0001]. Based on the microscopy and microanalysis results, we propose some growth mechanisms in relation to the growth processes of those exotic CdS nanostructures.