IP: 95.168.80.230 On: Sat, 16 Jun 2018 02:28:41 Copyright: American Scientific Publishers Delivered by Ingenta Copyright © 2018 American Scientific Publishers All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America Article Journal of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology Vol. 18, 3441–3447, 2018 www.aspbs.com/jnn Single-Stroke Synthesis of Tin Sulphide/Oxide Nanocomposites Within Engineering Thermoplastic and Their Humidity Response Dattatraya Adkar 1 ∗ , Parag Adhyapak 2 , Uttamrao Mulik 2 , Sandesh Jadkar 3 , Katia Vutova 4 , and Dinesh Amalnerkar 5 ∗ 1 Modern Education Society’s College of Engineering, 19 Bund Garden, Wadia College Campus, Pune 411001, India 2 Centre for Materials for Electronics Technology, Panchawati, Off Pashan Road, Pune 411008, India 3 Department of Physics, University of Pune, Pune 411007, India 4 Research Institute for Nanodevice and Bio Systems, Hiroshima University, Higashihiroshima 739-8527, Japan 5 Institute of Nano Science and Technology, Hanyang University, Seoul 04763, South Korea SnS nanostructured materials have attracted enormous interest due to their important properties and potential application in low cost solar energy conversion systems and optical devices. From the perspective of SnS based device fabrication, we offer single-stroke in-situ technique for the generation of Sn based sulphide and oxide nanostructures inside the polymer network via polymer- inorganic solid state reaction route. In this method, polyphenylene sulphide (PPS)—an engineering thermoplastic—acts as chalcogen source as well as stabilizing matrix for the resultant nano prod- ucts. Typical solid state reaction was accomplished by simply heating the physical admixtures of the tin salts (viz. tin acetate/tin chloride) with PPS at the crystalline melting temperature (285  C) of PPS in inert atmosphere. The synthesized products were characterized by using various physico- chemical characterization techniques. The prima facie observations suggest the concurrent forma- tion of nanocrystalline SnS with extraneous oxide phase. The TEM analysis revealed formation of nanosized particles of assorted morphological features with polydispersity confined to 5 to 50 nm. However, agglomerated particles of nano to submicron size were also observed. The humidity sens- ing characterization of these nanocomposites was also performed. The resistivity response with the level of humidity (20 to 85% RH) was compared for these nanocomposites. The linear response was obtained for both the products. Nevertheless, the nanocomposite product obtained from acetate precursor showed higher sensitivity towards the humidity than that of one prepared from chloride precursor. Keywords: Tin Sulphide, Tin Oxide, Polyphenylene Sulphide, Nanocomposite, Humidity Sensing. 1. INTRODUCTION Recently, semiconductor nano-structures have become the focus of intensive research because of their unique appli- cations in the fabrication of exotic electronic and sensor devices with enhanced performance. 1–5 They possess novel properties intrinsically associated with low dimensional- ity and size confinement, enabling the “bottom–up” con- struction of nanodevices. 6–8 Integrating nanostructures into devices is very crucial step which calls for new creative methods of nanomaterial fabrication and processing. Many ∗ Authors to whom correspondence should be addressed. kinds of nanomaterials have been successfully synthesized through wide variety of methods and detailed research account on these nanostructures can be found in the rele- vant reports. 9–19 SnS nanostructures have attracted enormous interest due to their important properties and potential application in low cost solar energy conversion systems and optical devices. 20–22 Depending upon the method of preparation and heat treatment temperature, SnS behaves as a p-type semiconductor with an indirect band gap between 1.0 and 1.5 eV 20 23–26 or direct band gap between 1.39 eV 27 and 2.33 eV. 28 Besides, it has the advantage of its constituent J. Nanosci. Nanotechnol. 2018, Vol. 18, No. 5 1533-4880/2018/18/3441/007 doi:10.1166/jnn.2018.14851 3441