A simple biomolecule-assisted synthetic route has been successfully developed to prepare bismuth sulfide（Bi 2 S 3 ） nanorods under solvothermal conditions.In the synthetic system,pentahydrate bismuth nitrate was employed to supply Bi source and L-cystine was used as sulfide source and complexing agent.The morphology,structure,and phase composition of the as-prepared Bi 2 S 3 products were characterized by X-ray diffraction（XRD）,energy dispersion spectroscopy（EDS）,X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy（XPS）,field-emission scanning electron microscopy（FESEM）,transmission electron microscopy（TEM）,selected area electron diffraction（SAED）,and high-resolution transmission electron microscopy（HRTEM）.The experimental results show that the nanorods have uniform diameter of 100-200 nm and length of 2-4 μm.The possible formation mechanism for the bismuth sulfide nanorods was discussed.
