A one-pot method has been employed to synthesize the nanocrystals of In 2 S 3 , ZnIn 2 S 4 , and CdIn 2 S 4 . The single-source precursor [In(bipy)(SC{O}Ph) 3 ] has been used for making In 2 S 3 nanocrystals. On the other hand, [Zn(SC{O}Ph) 2 ]•2H 2 O or [Cd(SC{O}Ph) 2 ]•2H 2 O was reacted with [In(bipy)(SC{O}Ph) 3 ] and decomposed to make the corresponding ternary metal indium sulfides. The nanocrystals have been characterized by Xray powder diffraction (XRPD), transmission (TEM) and scanning electron microscopies (SEM), selected area electron diffraction (SAED) patterns, and energy-dispersive X-ray analysis (EDX). Parameters such as temperature, molar ratio of precursor to surfactant, duration of reaction time, and surfactant type were varied to investigate their influence on the morphology and size of nanomaterial. It was found that In 2 S 3 exhibits different morphologies under different reaction conditions whereas the effect of these reactions conditions on the morphological evolution is not very prominent for ZnIn 2 S 4 and CdIn 2 S 4 . All the synthesized metal ternary In 2 S 3 showed efficient photocatalytic degradation of dye under ultraviolet (UV) light irradiation. We observed that the degradation of dye is much faster in chloroform than in the aqueous solution as the dispersion of nanoparticles is more homogeneous in chloroform solution. A comparison of the photocatalytic activity of In 2 S 3 with ZnIn 2 S 4 and CdIn 2 S 4 having similar morphology and size shows that the photocatalytic activity of the ternary chalcogenides of In 2 S 3 is considerably enhanced.

A high content of asphaltene and wax in crude oil leads to difficulties in the recovery and transportation of crude oil due to the precipitation of asphaltenes and the deposition of waxes. Comb-like polymers were found to be capable of inhibiting the aggregation of asphaltenes and crystallization of waxes. In this work, comb-like bipolymers of α-olefins/ultra-long chain (C18, C22 and C28) alkyl acrylate were synthesized and characterized by FT-IR and 1H NMR spectra. The results show that, for a model oil containing asphaltene, the initial precipitation point (IPP) of asphaltene was prolonged by UV, and the asphaltene particle size was reduced after adding the biopolymers, as revealed by dynamitic light scattering (DLS). The bipolymer containing the longer alkyl chain had a better asphaltene inhibition effect. However, DSC and rheological results show that the wax appearance temperature (WAT) of the typical high asphaltene and high wax content of crude oil was obviously reduced by adding bipolymers with shorter alkyl chains. The bipolymer (TDA2024-22) with a mediate alkyl chain (C22) reduced the viscosity and thixotropy of the crude oil by a much larger margin than others. Compared with the previously synthesized bipolymer with phenyl pendant (PDV-A-18), TDA2024-22 exhibited a better performance. Therefore, bipolymers with appropriate alkyl side chains can act as not only the asphaltene inhibitors but also wax inhibitors for high asphaltene and wax content of crude oil, which has great potential applications in the oil fields.