Hydrothermal synthesis and growth mechanism of Zn x Cd1−x S nanoflake dendrites

Abstract: Novel Zn x Cd1−x S nanoflake dendrites were synthesized by an original hydrothermal process at 95°C for 1h. Highly ordered embranchments were found on the trunks of the dendrites and each of the embranchments consisted of numbers of uniform regular hexagon nanoflakes. The nanoflake dendrites were oriented along the [0001] direction. With a fixed composition of reactants, Cd/Zn ratio of the product Zn x Cd1−x S was close to the composition in the recipe and gradually decreased from trunks to embranchments and then to nanoflakes. By adjusting the initial Zn/Cd ratio of the reactants, gradual changes in morphology of the final products were observed. The variation of Cd/Zn ratio in different parts of the nanoflake dendrite and morphology transformation of the final product Zn x Cd1−x S were governed by a competition between the trunk-like and the flake-like growth mode. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]