Chromium and copper dual-doped zinc sulfide nanoparticles: Synthesis, structural, morphological and optical properties

Abstract

Copper (Cu) and chromium (Cr) dual-doped zinc sulfide (ZnS) nanoparticles (NPs) were fabricated via a chemical co-precipitation technique at 24±°C without any capping agent used. The obtained metal sulfides were characterize using transmission electron microscope (TEM), scanning electron microscope (SEM),energy-dispersive X-ray (EDX), X-ray diffraction (XRD), ultra-violet/visible (UV–Vis), and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). The results revealed a Cr, Cu in ZnS lattice, grain size less than 5 nm, and unequal, aggregated spherical particles. Moreover, XRD analyses indicated that the dual ions penetrated the zinc sulfide without changing its cubic structure, the average size was nearly in the range 2.035–1.959 nm. Optical analysis displayed blue-shift after doping. The band gap values(Eg) were in the range of 4.79–4.89 eV. Thermal analysis shows that the synthesized sample is more stable in range 434–1029 °C. Based on these featured, it could be concluded that the synthesized Cu and Cr dual-doped ZnS NPs are beneficial for opto-electronic devices, and photocatalytic applications.