Synthesis “in situ” in reverse micelles of silver sulfide semiconductors

Abstract

Functionalized reverse micelles are used to control the size of silver sulfide, Ag2S, nanosized particles. The size of the crystallites varies linearly with the water content from 2 to 10 nm. The particles have been coated by dodecanethiol and extracted from micelles. The size of the particles dispersed in heptane has bene determined by SAXS experiments and compared to those obtained by TEM. A good agreement between these two technics is obtained. A drop of the particles previously dispersed in heptane is dried on a carbon grill. A network of the particles forming monolayers of crystallites in a hexagonal distribution appears.