Studies on the spectroscopic, photoconductive properties and antifungal activities of Al-doped PbS nanopowders synthesized by a simple soft chemical route

Abstract

This paper is focused on the results obtained on the structural, morphological, optoelectronic, photoconductive properties and antimicrobial activities of Al-doped PbS nanopowders synthesized by a simple soft chemical route. All the samples exhibit face-centered cubic structure with a (2 0 0) preferential orientation. The lattice constant values experience shrinkage with Al doping. Spherical shaped nanograins are visible from the TEM images of both the undoped and doped nanopowders. Optical band gap of pure PbS is found to increase from 1.91 to 2.04 eV with Al doping which may be attributed to quantum confinement effect. Photoconductivity is found to increase with Al incorporation making the synthesized nanopowders suitable for photoconductive sensing applications. Antifungal activities of the prepared samples were carried out against three fungi strains. It is found that the antifungal efficiency of the PbS nanopowders is improved with Al doping which make them suitable as antimicrobial agent against pathogenic microorganisms.