Synthesis of Cadmium Sulfide Rod-bundle Structures Decorated with
Nanoparticles from an Inorganic/ Organic Composite
Supporting Information
The formation of 1D inorganic/organic composite was followed by TEM analysis. Figure S1
presents the morphology evolution of composite during time process. Previous studies have
demonstrated thioglycolic acid can form complexes with cadmium ions, which always formed
1D chain-like structure (Dance et al. 1983; Niu and Gao 2006). These chain-like structures
formed very quickly (Figure S1a and S1b). With increase the reaction time to 1 h, these chainlike structures changed to 1D rod-like structures (Figure S1c). The pressure in the autoclave
enhanced gradually via increased temperature and reaction time. After 1 h, some complex began
to decompose to form CdS nanoparticles. However these nanoparticles adhered to the 1D rodlike structures, due to the primary coordination of cadmium ions to the thiol groups and a
secondary coordination to the carboxylic groups.
Figure S1. CdS/Cd-TGA compositees formed after reaction for a) 15 min, b) 30 min, c) 1 h, d) 3
h, respectively.
The components of the composite are further characterized by the X-ray photoelectron
spectroscopy (XPS) technique, as indicated in Figure S2. Figure S2a-b show the full XPS
spectrum and high-resolution spectra of Cd 3d and S 2p, respectively. From the Figure, the
binding energies of Cd 3d5/2 and S 2p3/2 are identified at 405.25 and 162.7 eV, respectively,
which is consistent with the reported values in the literature and further confirms CdS existed
in the composite (Murray et al. 1993). Also, the ionic valence of Cd and S elements can be
assumed as +2 and -2, respectively.
70000
7000
Cd3d5
60000
S2p
50000
Cd
Relative Intensity
Relative Intensity
6000
40000
30000
20000
5000
4000
3000
10000
0
400
402
404
406
408
410
412
414
416
418
420
422
Binding energy (eV)
2000
155
160
165
170
175
180
Binding energy (eV)
Figure S2. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) of the composite: (a) Cd 3d, (b) S 2p.
References
Dance IG, Scudder ML et al (1983) Cadmium thiolates. Tetrahedral CdS4 and
dodecahedral CdS4O4 coordination in catena-bis(carbethoxymethanethiolato)
cadmium(II). Inorg Chem 22: 1794-1798.
Murray CB, Norris DJ et al (1993) Synthesis and characterization of nearly monodisperse
CdE (E = sulfur, selenium, tellurium) semiconductor nanocrystallites. J Am Chem
Soc 115:8706-8715.
Niu HJ, Gao MY (2006) Diameter-Tunable CdTe Nanotubes Templated by 1D
Nanowires of Cadmium Thiolate Polymer. Angew Chem Int Ed 45: 6462-6466.