Facile preparation of two-dimensional sheet-like tin disulfide

Nanomaterials with two-dimensional (2D) arrangements displaying excellent electronic properties, sizable band gaps, and stable charge transfer applications are unique and highly desired. The 2D structures featuring sheet-like arrangements are typically prepared by harsh calcination of the salt precursors through a rapid temperature increase of more than 300oC for a few hours, which restricts the upscale possibility. In light of this, we report on a facile preparation of tin disulfide (SnS2) via direct heating methods using sunlight (SL), a light bulb (LB), and a hot plate (HP). These heating sources were selected to represent a natural irradiator, a least expensive illuminator, and the most common heater easily found in modern experimental setups which operates on low heating power to circumvent the sintering effects of conventional methods. The prepared SnS2 series gave strong (001) facets on diffractogram designate for preferable crystal growth along a single stacking orientation. This strong stacking gave aggregations for both SL and LB-SnS2 of the size less than 5 μm. In the case of HP-SnS2, an interconnected sheet-like morphology composed of inter-layer SnS2 structures having the nanosize of 870 nm was determined. These suggest that a certain amount of energy is required for an anisotropy crystallization of SnS2 to promote the 2D sheet-like arrangements. The described facile preparation offers a great potential for a mild and large scale synthesis of 2D materials for advanced applications.