Photoluminescence of Cu:ZnS, Ag:ZnS, and Au:ZnS nanoparticles applied in Bio-LED

Abstract

In this work, transition elements, including Cu2+, Ag+, and Au3+, were used to dope in zinc sulfide (ZnS) by chemical solution synthesis to prepare Cu:ZnS, Ag:ZnS, and Au:ZnS nanoparticles, respectively. Transition elements doping ZnS nanoparticles form the electronic energy level between the conduction band and valance band, which will result in the green light emission. There is a zinc sulfide emission shift from blue (~3.01 eV) to green light (~2.15 eV). We also found that Au:ZnS nanoparticles will emit a green light (~2.3 eV) and a blue light (~2.92 eV) at the same time because the mechanism of blue light emission was not broken after Au element had been doped. Furthermore, we used sodium chlorophyllin copper salt to simulate chlorophyll in biological light emission devices (Bio-LED). We combined copper chlorophyll with Cu:ZnS, Ag:ZnS, and Au:ZnS nanoparticles by a self-assembly method. Then, we measured its photoluminescence spectroscopy and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy to study its emission spectrum and bonding mode. We found that Au:ZnS nanoparticles are able to emit green and blue light to excite the red light emission of copper chlorophyll, which is a potential application of Bio-LED.