Abstract
ZnS nanoparticles were synthesized successfully by wet chemical route using two capping agents, polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) and alpha-methacrylic acid (MA) to control particle growth. Optical property and the morphology of the synthesized ZnS nanoparticles revealed the influence of the capping agents in the formation of nanosize ZnS semiconductor. Particle sizes estimated from X-Ray Diffraction (XRD) analysis are 3.75 nm and 2.60 nm for ZnS/PVA and ZnS/MA respectively. The estimated energy band gap of the capped ZnS nanoparticles showed blue shift of 0.60 eV and 1.00 eV for ZnS/PVA and ZnS/MA respectively. The vibrational modes associated with OH-stretching and –COOH from the Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) measurements confirm the presence of the capping agents.
Highlights
Capping of nanoparticles with functionalized long-chain organic molecule enables the exploitation of novel finite size effects on electronic and optical properties of semiconductor nanoparticles (Kulkarni et al, 2001)
Optical property and the morphology of the synthesized Zinc Sulfide (ZnS) nanoparticles revealed the influence of the capping agents in the formation of nanosize ZnS semiconductor
EV and 1.00 eV blue shifted compared to the average of the bulk ZnS band gap energy of 3.60 eV (Masoud, Fatemeh, & Mehdi, 2009)
Summary
Capping of nanoparticles with functionalized long-chain organic molecule enables the exploitation of novel finite size effects on electronic and optical properties of semiconductor nanoparticles (Kulkarni et al, 2001). Capping of semiconductor materials especially during synthesis controls particle agglomeration and passivate the semiconductor surface against surface defect/effect (Borah, Barmam, & Sharma, 2008b; Sharma, Kumar, & Pandey, 2008) This capping agent molecule binds to the surface of the particle by stabilizing the nuclei and larger nanoparticles against aggregation, controlling the growth of nanoparticles (Sperling & Parak, 2012). Zinc Sulfide (ZnS) is a group II-VI semiconductor with a wide direct band gap ranging from 3.5 to 3.7 eV at room temperature (Murali-Krishna, Vijayalakshmi, Venugopal, & Reddy, 2010) It has attracted much research interest due to its excellent properties at nanoscale and low toxicity when compared to other chalcogenides (Borah et al, 2008b; Ashish, Khan, & Kher, 2011a; Ashish, Khan, Kher, & Dhoble, 2011b; Luna-Martinez et al, 2011). All chemical used were of analytical grade and were used as purchased without further purification
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