Synthesis and characterization of MnS and MnSe nanoparticles: Morphology, optical and magnetic properties

•Manganese chalcogenide nanostructures.•Interesting and unusual morphologies.•Magneto-optical properties of manganese chalcogenide nanostructures. Herein, we report on the synthesis of manganese chalcogenide nanoparticles using mild synthetic methods. The MnS nanoparticles were synthesised using a single-source precursor method with tetramethylthiuram disulfide as a ligand, whilst the MnSe nanoparticles were synthesised by reacting reduced elemental selenium with manganese. These synthetic methods resulted in crystalline MnS nanoparticles with wire-like morphology with high aspect ratio and MnSe nanorods that were nearly mono-dispersed. The absorption band-edges of both MnS and MnSe were blue-shifted from the reported bulk band-edges indicative of quantum confinement effects seen in nanoparticles. Furthermore, both MnS and MnSe showed paramagnetic characteristics with the ESR spectra showing broad single resonance peaks with g-values of 2.0064 and 2.0068 respectively.