Fabrication of Cu2S nanoflowers and investigation of its optical and photothermal properties in both visible and infrared regions

In this work, Cu2S nanoflowers, which is a non-toxic p-type semiconductor and has an indirect band gap of 1.21 eV, were synthesized by solvothermal method and characterized through XRD and FESEM analyses. Then, their optical properties were measured through UV-Vis, FT-IR and PL analyses. Also, the photothermal properties of these nanoflowers were investigated in the range of visible and near infrared light. The results showed that these nanoflowers have good photothermal properties in both visible and infrared light ranges. In the visible region, by irradiating a water solution containing 20 g/l of Cu2S, a temperature increase of 23 °C was observed during 60 min. and in the infrared region, with 808 nm laser radiation, a 44 °C increase was observed for a concentration of 10 g/l of Cu2S. Also, surface evaporation of water in the presence of these nanoflowers was investigated with visible light irradiation and showed that the water evaporation increases up to 4 times with increasing the concentration of these nanoflowers