The effects of thioacetamide/copper molar ratio and reaction time on the phase evolution, morphology, optical, and photocatalytic properties of the nanosheets-based flower-like copper sulfide

In this paper, various morphologies including spherical and flower-like nanosheets-based CuS were synthesized by the green hydrothermal synthesis method. Copper (II) nitrate trihydrate and thioacetamide (TAM) were selected as a Cu2+ and sulfur source, respectively. The effects of TAM/Cu molar ratio and reaction time on the phase and morphological evolution of the samples were studied. For this purpose, the samples were distinguished by FT-IR, FE-SEM, XRD, and ultraviolet-visible spectroscopy. The photocatalytic and optical properties of the products were evaluated. It was found that self-organized nanoflower(SONF) structures exhibit very good photocatalyst efficiency to degrade organic dye due to a significant increase in their surface area because of decorated nanosheets on the sample. Therefore, the SONF structures exhibited a very suitable potential as the photocatalyst agents.