Dithiocarbamate complexes have remained prominent as single source precursors for the synthesis of clean metal sulfide nanoparticles. This study reports the synthesis of lead sulfide (PbS) nanoparticles using some novel complexes of 1, 10-phenanthroline lead(II) bis(N-alkyl-N-phenyl dithiocarbamate), represented as [Pb(L1)2phen] (1) and [Pb(L2)2phen] (2) (where L1 = bis(N-ethyl-N-phenyldithiocarbamate; L2 = bis(N-butyl-N-phenyldithiocarbamate); phen = 1, 10 phenanthroline) as a single source precursors. The complexes (1 and 2) were synthesized and characterized using various spectroscopic techniques and elemental analysis. The nanoparticles were synthesized via a solvothermal approach in oleylamine, used as a capping agent, and were given as PbS(1) and PbS(2) from [Pb(L1)2phen] (1) and [Pb(L2)2phen] (2), respectively, which were characterized using X-ray diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and absorption spectroscopy. The diffraction patterns confirmed the formation of face-centered cubic phase PbS nanoparticles with a preferential growth orientation along the (200) plane. The TEM images showed that PbS(1) were of a spherical morphology, while the morphology of PbS(2) tended to produce short rods. This was due to variation in the functional group on the precursor compounds. This variation also resulted in the different band gap energies found such as 1.148 and 1.107 eV for PbS(1) and PbS(2), respectively, indicating a blue shift from the bulk.
Keywords: adducts; dithiocarbamate; morphology; nanoparticles; precursor; solvothermal.