Hydrothermal Synthesis of Silver Sulfide

Abstract

Silver sulfide powders with submicro- and micrometer particle sizes have been synthesized by the hydrothermal method at temperatures from 373 to 453 K in aqueous and alcoholic solutions of silver nitrate, sodium sulfide and citrate, sulfur, and thiocarbamide. The crystal structures of the synthesized powders, morphology, composition, and particle size of silver sulfide have been analyzed by X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, energy-dispersive X-ray analysis, and gas adsorption. The powder particles have a similar morphology in the form of rectangular parallelepipeds and cubes with smoothed edges; the size of the powder particles depends on the synthesis conditions and ranges from ~500 to 2000 nm.