Metal xanthates are
widely used as single-source precursors for
the formation of metal sulfide thin films. In this study, we explore
the length of the alkyl ligand as an efficient tool to control the
formation and the nanoporosity of zinc sulfide thin films. The presented
approach allows us to prepare highly porous thin metal sulfide films
with potential applications in photocatalysis, whereby the nanoporosity
is significantly enhanced with an increasing number of carbons in
the alkyl chain of the metal xanthate precursors. To gain knowledge
about the mechanisms leading to the changes in the nanoporosity, the
thermal conversion process toward the porous films is studied in detail
by time-resolved simultaneous grazing incidence small- and wide-angle
X-ray scattering measurements using synchrotron radiation and thermogravimetric
analysis. Thereby, we found that the structural changes during the
early stages of the conversion process, which are distinctly influenced
by the decomposition temperature of the metal xanthates, different
growth regimes of the nanocrystals, and a mesophase formation, governed
by the properties of the decomposition products of the metal xanthates,
are mainly responsible for the changes of the structural properties
and the nanoporosity of the final ZnS films.