Abstract
A novel methodology and its mechanism to synthesize ZnO/ZnS core–shell nanostructure by hydrothermal-supported co-precipitation method are presented. Chemical precursors Na2S and thioacetic acid were used as chemical conversion agents. Detailed structural, morphological, compositional and optical studies were carried out. Powder X-ray diffraction analysis confirms the presence of both wurtzite and cubic phase in ZnO/ZnS core–shell, respectively. OH absorption capacity of as-grown ZnO/ZnS nanostructures was found to be enhanced due to interfacial roughness ZnO/ZnS as compared to pristine ZnO. Morphological studies confirm the formation of irregular spherical nanocrystals of size ~ 50 nm. Band gap of ZnO nanocrystals was found to be increased upon sulphidation process. Room temperature EPR studies also confirmed the ZnS shell over ZnO nanocrystals suppresses the paramagnetic defects in ZnO. Interestingly, defect-related visible light emission from ZnO nanocrystals was found to be suppressed completely due to the presence of the larger band gap of ZnS as a shell over ZnO core. ZnS shell restricts the photogenerated charge carriers within the ZnO nanocrystal core, making ZnO/ZnS core–shell a potential candidate for optoelectronic applications such as UV photodetectors.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
J. Chang, E.R. Waclawik, RSC Adv. 4, 23505 (2014)
M.-R. Gao, Y.-F. Xu, J. Jiang, S.-H. Yu, Chem. Soc. Rev. 42, 2986 (2013)
P. Reiss, M. Protiere, L. Li, Small 5, 154 (2009)
S. Saha, P. Sarkar, Chem. Phys. Lett. 555, 191 (2013)
S.K. Shaikh, V.V. Ganbavle, S.I. Inamdar, K.Y. Rajpure, RSC Adv. 6, 25641 (2016)
S. Choi, A.M. Berhane, A. Gentle, C. Ton-That, M.R. Phillips, I. Aharonovich, ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces 7, 5619 (2015)
S.I. Inamdar, V.V. Ganbavle, K.Y. Rajpure, Superlattice Microst. 76, 253 (2014)
M.M. Ismail, W.Q. Cao, M.D. Humadi, Optik 127, 4307 (2016)
H.W. Kang, J. Leem, S.Y. Yoon, H.J. Sung, Nanoscale 6, 2840 (2014)
P. Uthirakumar, C.-H. Hong, E.-K. Suh, Y.-S. Lee, Chem. Mater. 18, 4990 (2006)
P.K. Vabbina, R. Sinha, A. Ahmadivand, M. Karabiyik, B. Gerislioglu, O. Awadallah, N. Pala, ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces 23, 19791 (2017)
B.G. Gerislioglu, L. Dong, A. Ahmadivand, H. Hu, P. Nordlander, N.J. Halas, Nano Lett. 20, 2087 (2020)
A. Yadav, B. Gerisliogluc, A. Ahmadivand, A. Kaushike, G.J.C.Z. Ouyang, Q. Wangh, V.S. Yadav, Y.K. Mishra, Y. Wu, Y. Liu, S.R. Krishna, Nano Today 37, 101072 (2021)
S. Venkataprasad Bhat, S.R.C. Vivekchand, A. Govindaraj, C.N.R. Rao, Solid State Commun. 149, 510 (2009)
L. Qin, C. Shing, S. Sawyer, P.S. Dutta, Opt. Mater. 33, 359 (2011)
Y. Gong, T. Andelman, G.F. Neumark, S. O’Brien, I.L. Kuskovsky, Nanoscale Res Lett. 2(6), 297 (2007)
H.S. Kang, J.S. Kang, J.W. Kim, S.Y. Lee, J. Appl. Phys. 95, 1246 (2004)
S.B. Zhang, S.-H. Wei, A. Zunger, Phys. Rev. B 63, 075205 (2001)
D.C. Reynolds, D.C. Look, B. Jogai, J. Appl. Phys. 89, 6189 (2001)
K. Grieve, P. Mulvaney, F. Grieser, Curr. Opin. Colloid Interface Sci. 5, 168 (2000)
D.C.J. Neo, C. Cheng, S.D. Stranks, S.M. Fairclough, J.S. Kim, A.I. Kirkland, J.M. Smith, H.J. Snaith, H.E. Assender, A.A.R. Watt, Chem. Mater. 26, 4004 (2014)
S. Sawyer, L. Qin, C. Shing, Zinc oxide nanoparticles for ultraviolet photodetection. Int. J. High Speed Electron. Syst. 20, 183 (2012)
A.M. Bazargan, F. Sharif, S. Mazinani, N. Naderi, J Mater Sci: Mater Electron 27, 8221 (2016)
P. Singh, B. Rajesh, S. Bishnoi, G. Swati, V.V. Jaiswal, V. Shanker, D. Haranath, Ceram. Int. 42, 17016 (2016)
Hu. Linfeng, M.M. Brewster, Xu. Xiaojie, C. Tang, S. Gradečak, X. Fang, Nano Lett. 13, 1941 (2013)
G. Malloci, L. Chiodo, A. Rubio, A. Matton, J. Phys. Chem. C 116, 8741 (2012)
S.K. Kailasa, H.-F. Wu, Analyst 135, 1115 (2010)
S.K. Kailasa, K. Kiran, H.-F. Wu, Anal. Chem. 80, 9681 (2008)
X.M. Shuai, W.Z. Shen, J. Phys. Chem. C 6415, 115 (2011)
Y. Hu, H. Qian, Y. Liu, G. Du, F. Zhang, L. Wang, X. Hu, CrystEngComm 13, 3438 (2011)
C.-C. Cheng, C.-F. Cho, J.L. Chiu, C.-T. Tsai, H. Chen, Results Phys. 10, 449 (2018)
E. Júnior, F. Nobre, G. Laécio, S. Cavalcante, M. Santos, F. Souza, J.M. Matos, RSC Adv. 7, 24263 (2017)
G. Swati, D. Bidwai, D. Haranath, Nanotechnology 31, 364007 (2020)
Y. Ye, H. Zhang, Y. Chen, P. Denga, Z. Huang, L. Liu, Y. Qian, Y. Li, Q. Li et al., J Alloy Compd. 639, 422 (2015)
Y.P. Xie, Z.B. Yu, G. Liu, X.L. Ma, H.-M. Cheng, Energy Environ. Sci. 7, 1895 (2014)
P. Makuła, M. Pacia, W. Macyk, J. Phys. Chem. Lett. 9(23), 6814–6817 (2018)
P. Fageria, S. Gangopadhyay, S. Pande, RSC Adv. 4, 24962 (2014)
G. Rani, P.D. Sahare, Nano Commun. Netw. 3, 197–202 (2012)
H. Kleinwechter, C. Janzen, J. Knipping, H. Wiggers, P. Roth, J. Mater. Sci. 37, 4349 (2002)
E.M. Flores, C.W. Raubach, R. Gouvea, E. Longo, S. Cava, M.L. Moreira, Optical and structural investigation of ZnO@ZnS core–shell nanostructures. Mater. Chem. Phys. 173, 347 (2016)
M. Sookhakian, Y.M. Amin, W.J. Basirun, M.T. Tajabadi, N. Kamarulzaman, Synthesis, structural, and optical properties of type-II ZnO–ZnS core–shell nanostructure. J. Lumin. 145, 244 (2014)
K.S. Ranjith, A. Senthamizhan, B. Balusamy, T. Uyar, Catal. Sci. Technol. 7, 1167 (2017)
G. Swati, S. Mishra, D. Yadav, R.K. Sharma, D. Dwivedi, N. Vijayan, J.S. Tawale, V. Shanker, D. Haranath, J. Alloys Comp. 571, 1 (2013)
R. Khokhra, B. Bharti, H.-N. Lee, R. Kumar, Sci Rep. 7, 15032 (2017)
P. Camarda, F. Messina, L. Vaccaro, S. Agnello, G. Buscarino, R. Schneider, R. Popescu, D. Gerthsen, R. Lorenzi, F. Gelardi, M. Cannas, Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys. 18, 16237 (2016)
G. Hitkari, S. Singh, G. Pandey, Nano-Struct. Nano-Objects 12, 1 (2017)
D. Savchenko, A. Vasin, O. Kuz, I. Verovsky, A. Prokhorov, A. Nazarov, J. Lančok, E. Kalabukhova, Sci. Rep 10, 17347 (2020)
E. Cerrato, M.C. Paganini, E. Giamello, J. Photochem. Photobiol 397, 112531 (2020)
M. Kakazey, M. Vlasova, M. Dominguez-Patiño, M. Dominguez-Patiño, G. Srećković, T.N. Natalija, Sci. Sinter. 36, 65 (2004)
H.-L. Guo, Q. Zhu, X.-L. Wu, Y.-F. Jiang, X. Xie, A.-W. Xu, Nanoscale 7, 7216 (2015)
S.-T. Tai, Y.-S. Tsai, Y.C. Sermon Wu, W. J.-Jr. Wang, C. Hsiang, Results Phys. 15, 102703 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rinp.2019.102703
M. Sookhakian, Y.M. Amin, W.J. Basirun, M.T. Tajabadi, N. Kamarulzaman, J. Lumin. 145, 244 (2014)
Y.-C. Liang, C.-C. Wang, RSC Adv. 8, 5063 (2018)
X.M. Shuai, W.Z. Shen, J. Phys. Chem. C 115, 6415–6422 (2011)
M.A. Hassan, M.A. Johar, A. Waseem, I.V. Bagal, J.-S. Ha, S.-W. Ryu, Opt. Express 27, A184–A196 (2019)
Acknowledgements
Author GS thanks VIT for providing ‘VIT SEED GRANT’ for carrying out this research work.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Conflict of interest
Authors G. Swati and Manoj Morampudi hereby declare they have no conflict of interest.
Additional information
Publisher's Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Swati, G., Morampudi, M. Size-selective and facile synthesis of ZnO/ZnS core–shell nanostructure and its characterization. Appl. Phys. A 127, 456 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00339-021-04554-1
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00339-021-04554-1