Carbon-assisted morphological manipulation of CdS nanostructures and their cathodoluminescence properties

CdS nanostructures with different morphologies and sizes were successfully fabricated through a facile and effective carbon-assisted thermal evaporation method. Through simply changing the positions of silicon substrates, the temperatures and the effects of carbon in different zones were modified, and thus the morphologies of CdS nanostructures were varied from multipods to nanobrushes to nanocups. These nanostructures were characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), energy-dispersive X-ray spectrometry (EDS), X-ray powder diffraction (XRD) and Raman spectroscopy. Cathodoluminescence (CL) measurement shows that the as-grown CdS nanostructures display different luminescent properties. CdS multipods and nanocups show mainly green emission centered at ∼496 nm. However, nanobrushes exhibit predominant red emission band peaking at ∼711 nm. These interesting results show that carbon not only affected the growth process but also influenced the properties of CdS nanostructures.