Insights of micro-structural, optical, morphological, thermal, compositional and theoretical properties of SnS₂ nanostructures

Abstract In recent years, tin disulfide (SnS 2 ) nanostructures have possessed substantial research interest due to tunable characteristics including crystallographic, emission, linear as well as non-linear optical parameters and their theoretical aspects etc. In present work, two-dimensional SnS 2 nanostructures were synthesized through simple hydrothermal method. Structural analysis signifies the formation of hexagonal phase (space group symmetry: P6 3 mc). Raman and FTIR spectroscopy techniques also revealed the formation of hexagonal phase and presence of Sn-S and S-S stretching vibrational modes in the prepared SnS 2 nanostructures respectively. Morphological and elemental analysis inferred that synthesized nanostructures exhibit a hexagonal sheet like morphology and uniform Sn and S elemental distribution. XPS analysis also indicated the presence of individual elements i.e. Sn and S in +4 and −2 energy states in the synthesized nanostructures. Furthermore, the stability of prepared SnS 2 nanostructures have been revealed by TGA analysis. Density functional theory (DFT) studies such as phonon dispersion curves as well as projected density of states signifies the stability of the SnS 2 layered structure. Photoluminescence results revealed the emission in visible region i.e. ∼469, ∼566 and ∼603 nm. Ultraviolet -visible spectroscopic results inferred that the reflectance edge lies in visible spectrum with band gap value of ∼2.30 eV. Numerous empirical models were also employed to investigate the linear along with non-linear optical parameters and discussed in detail.