Decoration of carbon nanostructures with metal sulfides by sonolysis of single-molecule precursors

Abstract

Carbon nanostructures have emerged in recent decades as uniquely convenient materials for a number of technologies. Some of their envisaged applications require hybrid nanostructures that result from the coupling of semiconducting phases to the carbon materials. Here, we describe a new sonochemical method to decorate carbon-based materials (multiwalled carbon nanotubes, graphene oxide, and graphite flakes) with metal sulfide nanophases. In this research, we have used a Cd-II alkyldithiocarbamate complex as a single source to produce CdS nanophases that nucleate and grow over the carbon substrates. However, other metal sulfides can be produced by a similar methodology, which paves the way to a scalable method for the preparation of hybrid metal sulfide/carbon nanomaterials.