A Review on the Synthesis, Characterisation and Application of Indium Sulphide Nanoparticles

Liew, Jian Hong (2021) A Review on the Synthesis, Characterisation and Application of Indium Sulphide Nanoparticles. Final Year Project (Bachelor), Tunku Abdul Rahman University College.

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Abstract

The ever-increasing demand for energy, especially electricity has drawn the attention of people over the past decade as most of the electricity that the world is using today are generated largely by burning coal and fossil fuels, which are non-renewable, slowly depleting and have a proven great impact to the environment leading to global warming and severe weathers. Therefore, it is desirable to search for renewable form of energy sources, inclusive of solar energy, geothermal energy and wind energy. This study herein is an overview of the various methods employed to synthesise, characterise indium sulphide nanoparticles (In2S3 NPs), a promising photocatalytically active nanoparticles that has the capability to convert efficiently solar energy into electricity and photocatalytically degrade harmful compounds. The aim of this study is to compare methods that are currently available for the fabrication of In2S3 NPs in terms of their advantages, disadvantages and how the methods fair in terms of their fitting to the green chemistry concepts and scalability which is a critical challenge faced in the commercialisation of In2S3 NPs materials before one could capitalize from the useful properties of In2S3 nanomaterials. Methods for synthesising In2S3 NPs for instance digestive ripening, colloidal method, solvothermal method, gases phase synthesis and hydrothermal method were compared. Conclusions stemmed from this review are that coprecipitation and hydrothermal method are two of the best candidates among others, when the feasibility of upscaling and green chemistry approaches (solvent and auxiliaries) are considered. In light of the conclusion, a room temperature co-precipitation method was recommended as a novel method to synthesise In2S3 NPs which allows energy saving when compared to a hydrothermal approach since no heating required. Preliminary testing of the proposed method was carried out and it was found to have the potential to be implemented in the near future after the completion of a future full study.