ZnS nanostructures: From synthesis to applications

ZnO nanostructures for optoelectronics: Material properties and device applications

Graphene, a single, one-atom-thick sheet of carbon atoms arranged in a honeycomb lattice and the two-dimensional building block for carbon materials, has attracted great interest for a wide range of applications. Due to its superior properties such as thermo-electric conduction, surface area and mechanical strength, graphene materials have inspired huge interest in sensing of various chemical species. In this timely review, we discuss the recent advancement in the field of graphene based gas sensors with emphasis on the use of modified graphene materials. Further, insights of theoretical and experimental aspects associated with such systems are also discussed with significance on the sensitivity and selectivity of graphene towards various gas molecules. The first section introduces graphene, its synthesis methods and its physico-chemical properties. The second part focuses on the theoretical approaches that discuss the structural improvisations of graphene for its effective use as gas sensing materials. The third section discusses the applications of pristine and modified graphene materials in gas sensing applications. Various graphene modification methods are discussed including using dopants and defects, decoration with metal/metal oxide nanoparticles, and functionalization with polymers. Finally, a discussion on the future challenges and perspectives of this enticing field of graphene sensors for gas detection is provided.

Recent advances in graphene based gas sensors

Quantum dots (QDs) have received great interest for diverse applications due to their distinct advantages, such as narrow and symmetric emission with tunable colors, broad and strong absorption, reasonable stability, and solution processibility Doped QDs not only potentially retain almost all of the above advantages, but also avoid the self-quenching problem due to their substantial ensemble Stokes shift Two obvious advantages of doped QDs, especially doped ZnS QDs, over typical CdSe@ZnS and CdTe QDs are longer dopant emission lifetime and potentially lower cytotoxicity The lifetime of dopant emission from transition-metal ion or lanthanide ion-doped QDs is generally longer than that of the bandgap or defect-related emission of host, and that of biological background fluorescence, providing great opportunities to eliminate background fluorescence for biosensing and bioimaging For bioimaging applications, fluorescent dopants may mitigate toxicity problems by producing visible or infrared emission in nanocrystals made from less-harmful elements than those currently used In this review, recent advances in utilizing doped QDs for chemo/biosensing and bioimaging are discussed, and the synthetic routes and optical properties of doped QDs that make them excellent probes for various strategies in chemo/biosensing and bioimaging are highlighted Moreover, perspectives on future exploration of doped QDs for chemo/biosensing and bioimaging are also given

Doped quantum dots for chemo/biosensing and bioimaging

Vacancy defects play an important role in modifying the electronic structure and the properties of photoexcited charge carriers by introducing additional energy levels and consequently enhanced the photocatalytic activity of photocatalyst. In this work, we report a ZnS/g-C3N4 heterostructure with abundant zinc vacancy defects on the surface of ZnS to emphasis the synergistic promotion on charge separation. The ZnS/g-C3N4 heterostructured photocatalyst possesses low over-potential, extended absorption in the visible light region, and promoted photoinduced electron-hole separation capability. Fluorescence emission spectra and XPS results confirm that existence of abundant zinc vacancies on ZnS. VZn-rich CZV20 (g-C3N4/ZnS-20 wt%) heterojunction exhibits more than 30 times higher photocatalytic H2 evolution rate (713.68 μmol h−1 g−1) than that of pure g-C3N4 (24.09 μmol h−1 g−1) under visible light irradiation and high stability during the prolonged photocatalytic operation. The enhanced photocatalytic performance can be attributed to the intimate interfacial contact between g-C3N4 and ZnS nanoparticles, increasing the light-absorbing capacity and charge separation efficiency of ZnS/g-C3N4 heterojunction. And more importantly, the visible-light photocatalytic H2 production activity can be ascribed to the two-photo excitation in the middle band gap of ZnS. This work demonstrates that appropriate Zn vacancy defects modified ZnS/g-C3N4 heterojunction can be used for highly efficient visible-light photocatalysis.

Zn-vacancy mediated electron-hole separation in ZnS/g-C3N4 heterojunction for efficient visible-light photocatalytic hydrogen production

Synthesis and photoluminescent properties of ZnS nanocrystals doped with copper and halogen

Alternate-current electroluminescent (ac EL) devices based on doped ZnS nanocrystals emitting blue, green, and orange-red colors are reported. ZnS nanocrystals doped with Cu+ – Al3+ and Cu+ – Al3+ – Mn2+ combinations were synthesized by wet chemical method at room temperature. The ZnS:Cu+, Al3+ nanocrystals show blue (462 nm) and green (530 nm) EL emissions depending upon the presence and absence of sulphur vacancies, respectively. The orange EL emission (590 nm) is realized from ZnS:Cu+, Al3+, Mn2+ nanoparticles by way of nonradiative energy transfer from AlZn – CuZn pairs to MnZn. The EL devices show low turn-on voltage of ~10 V ac @100 Hz. The mechanism of ac EL in ZnS nanocrystals has been explained wherein the excitation is attributed to the electric-field-assisted injection of electron-hole pairs from the surface regions into the interiors and their subsequent recombination therein causes emission.

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Multicolor electroluminescent devices using doped ZnS nanocrystals

Studies of luminescence properties of ZnO and ZnO:Zn nanorods prepared by solution growth technique

http://nathan.instras.com/ResearchProposalDB/doc-92.pdf

K. Manzoor

Papers

Synthesis and photoluminescent properties of ZnS nanocrystals doped with copper and halogen

Multicolor electroluminescent devices using doped ZnS nanocrystals

Studies of luminescence properties of ZnO and ZnO:Zn nanorods prepared by solution growth technique

Energy transfer from organic surface adsorbate-polyvinyl pyrrolidone molecules to luminescent centers in ZnS nanocrystals

Dendrigraft polymer-based synthesis of silver nanoparticles showing bright blue fluorescence