Jianquan Li, Henri Kessler and Luc Delmotte
Two novel mesostructured materials based on tin(IV) sulfide (C16TMA–SnS–L and C16TMA–SnS–M) have been synthesized in the system C16TMABr–SnCl4–Na2 S–H2O (C16TMABr, cetyltrimethylammonium bromide) at ambient temperature. These materials were characterized by XRD, atomic force microscopy (AFM), FTIR, 119Sn MAS NMR, 13C CP MAS NMR, energy-dispersive X-ray (EDX) analysis and bulk chemical analysis. The lamellar phase C16TMA–SnS–L whose chemical composition is C19H42NSnS2.5 was formed in the system containing a large amount of surfactant or mixtures of a little of surfactant and some TMABr. However, it is necessary to use a very low concentration of surfactant in the reaction mixtures for the formation of the other new mesostructured phase C16TMA–SnS–M with a S/Sn ratio of 2. 119Sn MAS NMR indicates that the coordination of tin(IV) in these two mesostructured materials is very different, i.e. tetrahedral in C16TMA–SnS–L and octahedral in C16TMA–SnS–M. Different environments of the aliphatic chains of the surfactant were confirmed by 13C CP MAS NMR.