Shape-controlled synthesis and properties of manganese sulfide microcrystals via a biomolecule-assisted hydrothermal process

An effective biomolecule-assisted synthetic route has been successfully developed to prepare γ-manganese sulfide (MnS) microtubes under hydrothermal conditions. In the synthetic system, soluble hydrated manganese chloride was employed to supply Mn source and L-cysteine was used as precipitator and complexing reagent. Sea urchin-like γ-MnS and octahedron-like α-MnS microcrystals could also be selectively obtained by adjusting the process parameters such as hydrothermal temperature and reaction time. The phase structures, morphologies and properties of the as-prepared products were investigated in detail by X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy dispersion spectroscopy (EDS), and photoluminescence spectra (PL). The photoluminescence studies exhibited the correlations between the morphology, size, and shape structure of MnS microcrystals and its optical properties. The formation mechanisms of manganese sulfide microcrystals were discussed based on the experimental results.