Sonochemical synthesis of interconnected SnS nanocrystals for supercapacitor and solar-physical conversion applications

Tin Sulfide (SnS) nanostructures based solar energy conversion and energy storage have attracted the research interest in the recent years. We have reported the ultrasonically synthesized interconnected SnS nanocrystals and their performance in supercapacitor, photovoltaic and photocatalytic applications. The SnS nanoparticles exhibited the orthorhombic crystalline nature with the crystalline sizes of 11 nm, 7.2 nm and 4.5 nm for various quantity of polyvinyl pyrrolidone (PVP), utilized as agglomeration preventing agent. The electron microscopic images were clearly evidenced the interconnected SnS nanoparticles with an average particle size of 7 nm. The nanoparticles exhibited the size dependent UV–vis absorption properties and the band gap values were found to be 1.18 eV, 1.26 eV and 1.34 eV for SnS nanoparticles. The SnS nanoparticles had shown the excellent supercapacitor behaviour with the specific capacitance value of 1421.05 F/g and superior recyclability. Ultrasonically produced SnS nanoparticles had shown 12% efficiency in DSSC Solar cell applications. Also, the SnS nanoparticles had shown the excellent performance in photocatalytic degradation of methylene blue under LED light illumination.