Facile solvothermal synthesis of 3D flowerlike β-In2S3 microspheres and their photocatalytic activity performance

Abstract

Three-dimension (3D) flowerlike β-In₂S₃ microspheres have been successfully synthesized by a facile solvothermal method using thioacetamide (TAA, CH₃CSNH₂) as both a sulfur source and ligand of In³⁺ in the ethanol–water system. The morphologies of In₂S₃ can be controlled by simply changing the volume ratio of ethanol to water in the solvent. The experimental results demonstrate that 3D flowerlike β-In₂S₃ microspheres undergo surface recrystallization, selective absorption and oriented growth processes. A detailed morphology formation mechanism has been proposed and discussed. Furthermore, the 3D flowerlike β-In₂S₃ microspheres show relatively high visible-light photocatalytic activity for methyl orange (MO) degradation, which can be attributed to both the relative higher BET surface area and advantageous optical properties.