Influence of annealing temperature on structural, morphological and optical properties of CTAB assisted cadmium sulphide (CdS) quantum dots: promising candidate for quantum dot sensitized solar cell (QDSSC) applications

Cadmium sulphide (CdS) quantum dots were successfully synthesized in an ambient condition through chemical precipitation technique under methanolic medium. Quantum confinement effect was achieved using cetyltrimethyl ammonium bromide (CTAB) which would be used as a stabilizing agent. In this article, we report the effect of annealing temperature on structural, morphology and optical properties of CdS nanoparticles. In this esteem, powder X-ray diffraction reveals the variation in the crystal structure and crystallite size by means of annealing temperature. IR spectroscopy confirms the coordination of CTAB with the CdS nanoparticles. FESEM and TEM analyses were used to investigate the morphology, particle size and particle size distribution of the CdS nanoparticles. EDX analysis gives the elemental composition of the title compound. UV–Vis-NIR reflectance spectroscopy explains the absorption nature and band gap of CdS nanoparticles. Photoluminescence analysis gives out the luminescence behavior of the title compound and its variation with regarding to the annealing temperature. Herein, we conclude that, the particle size increases according to the increase in annealing temperature.