A facile solution chemical route to self-assembly of CuS ball-flowers and their application as an efficient photocatalyst

Ball-flower shaped CuS structures have been synthesized by using mixed copper chloride and thiourea in a simple hydrothermal process employing poly(vinylpyrrolidone) (PVP) as the surfactant. The morphological investigations by field emission scanning electron microscope (FE-SEM) reveal that the ball-flower shaped nanostructures are monodispersed in large quantities. The ball-flower shaped morphologies are strongly dependent on the different ratios of copper chloride to thiourea, the reaction temperature and reaction time. The possible growth mechanism of the formation of ball-flower shaped CuS products is discussed in detail. In addition, the photocatalytic activity of ball-flower shaped CuS architectures has been tested by the degradation of rhodamine B (RhB) under UV light irradiation, showing that the as-prepared ball-flower shaped CuS structures exhibit high photocatalytic activity for the degradation of RhB.