Facile noninjection synthesis and photocatalytic properties of wurtzite-phase CuGaS2 nanocrystals with elongated morphologies

Abstract

In this communication, we present the colloidal preparation of ternary CuGaS2 (CGS) nanocrystals that exhibit elongated morphologies and possess the metastable wurtzite crystal structure. A facile noninjection-based synthetic strategy was utilized wherein dithiocarbamate complexes of copper and gallium were thermally decomposed in the presence of dodecanethiol. The anisotropic CGS nanocrystals were found to display promising photocatalytic behaviour under visible-light illumination. © 2013 The Royal Society of Chemistry.