Strong quantum confinement effects in SnS nanocrystals produced by ultrasound-assisted method

Abstract

Nanocrystalline SnS powder has been prepared using tin chloride (SnCl 2) as a tin ion source and sodium sulfide (Na2S) as a sulfur ion source with the help of ultrasound irradiation at room temperature. The as-synthesized SnS nanoparticles were quantitatively analyzed and characterized in terms of their morphological, structural, and optical properties. The detailed structural and optical properties confirmed the orthorhombic SnS structure and a strongly blue shifted direct band gap (1.74 eV), for synthesized nanoparticles. The measured band gap energy of SnS nanoparticles is in a fairly good agreement with the results of theoretical calculations of exciton energy based on the potential morphing method in the Hartree-Fock approximation. © 2013 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht.