RESEARCH PAPER Facile-chelating amine-assisted synthesis of b-In 2 S 3 nanostructures from a new single-source precursor derived from S-methyl dithiocarbazate Pulakesh Bera • Sang Il Seok Received: 11 August 2009 / Accepted: 18 April 2010 / Published online: 6 May 2010 Ó Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2010 Abstract Flake-built 3D b-In 2 S 3 nanostructures were synthesized by thermolysis of S-methyl dithioc- arbazate–indium(III) complex precursor in hexame- thylenediamine (HMDA). XRD patterns showed that the cubic phase of 3D b-In 2 S 3 remained unchanged but the crystallinity was increased after annealing at 400 °C for 20 min. The products were also character- ized by SEM, TEM, and EDS. Based on the experi- mental results, we propose that the growth of 3D nanostructures is controlled by the stability of the intermediate chelate complex made by indium(III) and solvent. The optical properties of the 3D b-In 2 S 3 nanostructures were also investigated by UV–Vis and PL spectroscopy, which indicated strong quantum confinement effect. Keywords Single-source precursor Á 3D b-In 2 S 3 nanostructures Á S-Benzyl dithiocarbazate Á Solvo-thermal decomposition Á Energy conversion Introduction In recent years, nanomaterials have emerged as the new building blocks to devise light energy harvest- ing assemblies. Efforts are being made to design organic and inorganic hybrid structures that exhibit improved selectivity and efficiency toward light energy conversion. Recently, extensive studies to synthesize nanostructures with well-defined geomet- rical shapes (e.g., solid and hollow spheres, prisms, rods, tubes, and wires) and organize them as 2- and 3-dimensional assemblies have further expanded the possibility of developing new strategies for light energy conversion (Alivisatos 1996; Kamat 2002, 2008; Ouyang et al. 2002; Xia et al. 2003; Burda et al. 2005). Solar cells based on inorganic sensi- tizers have drawn a lot of attention during past few years because of their possibility to boost the energy conversion efficiency beyond the traditional Shock- ley and Queisser (1961) limit of 32% for Si based solar cells. Nano-dimensional b-In 2 S 3 , a n-type III–VI semi- conductor with a defect spinal structure (Chen et al. 2008), has been considered as important photocon- ducting materials in the preparation of red and green phosphores for color televisions (Xiong et al. 2002a, b) and dry cells (Dalas and Kobotiatis 1993) and heterojunctions for photovoltaic electric generators (Dalas et al. 1993). The defect spinel structure is obtained in either cubic or tetragonal form. The intrinsic defect in structure of b-In 2 S 3 has made it P. Bera Á S. I. Seok (&) KRICT-EPFL Global Research Laboratory, Advanced Materials Division, Korea Research Institute of Chemical Technology, 19 Sinseongno, Yuseong, Daejeon 305-600, Korea e-mail: seoksi@krict.re.kr P. Bera Postgraduate Department of Chemistry, Panskura Banamali College, Vidyasagar University, Midnapore (E) 721152, West Bengal, India 123 J Nanopart Res (2011) 13:1889–1896 DOI 10.1007/s11051-010-9940-3