A Simple Method for Large-Scale Synthesis of Nano-Sized Zinc Sulfide

Abstract

nanosized zinc sulfide (ZnS) is a special property semiconductor material widely used in many applications such as catalyst, light emitting diode, transistor, gas sensors, biosensors, UV-light sensors, and photovoltaic cell. The wet chemical method is a simple and low-cost method to prepare nanosized zinc sulfide. However, the wet chemical reaction using sodium sulfide without surfactant or template has rarely been reported. In the present work nanosized zinc sulfide particles were synthesized by simple wet chemical reaction method at room temperature and without any surfactant. The influence of sulfur source, sodium sulfide and potassium sulfide used as the reactant were investigated. The samples were characterized by scanning electron microscopy coupling with energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (FESEM-EDX), and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The results show that the nanoparticles of zinc sulfide were obtained from sodium sulfide and potassium sulfide with particles sizes are in the range of 10 to 50 nm and 25 to 50 nm respectively. In addition, from FESEM microphotograph the primary ZnS particles size of around 5 nm and 25 nm were obtained by 10% salt (sodium chloride, potassium chloride, sodium acetate) addition with sodium sulfide and potassium sulfide reactant respectively.