Synthesis of CdS nanowires on Cd foil and their photoluminescence properties

Cadmium sulfide (CdS) nanowires were synthesized on Cd foil via a simple solvothermal reaction at 180 °C using thiosemicarbazide as the sulfide source and ethylenediamine as the solvent. The CdS nanowires are hexagonal-phase single crystals with an average diameter of 50 nm and length of several microns. The as-prepared CdS nanowires show an absorption peak of around 483 nm in the absorption spectrum. The CdS nanowires exhibit bright photoluminescence (PL) with two distinct emission bands at 503 nm and 697 nm, which shows that the as-prepared CdS nanowires are high-quality nanocrystals.