Facile synthesis of ZnS nanorods in PEG and their spectral performance

Green and one-step synthesis of ZnS nanorods through the interaction of zinc nitrate hexahydrate and S powder in PEG400 was studied. Orthogonal experiments were conducted to study the influence of the experimental conditions including the molar ratio of sulfur (nS) and zinc nitrate hexahydrate (nZn), the heating time and the molecular weight of PEG (200, 400, 600) on the nature and morphology of the products. The results show that the zinc/sulfur molar ratio determines the composition of the products. When the zinc/sulfur molar ratio is 2 mmol:1 mmol with temperature of 160 degrees C and reaction time of 120 min, homogeneous ZnS nanorods, with diameters and lengths of about 64 nm-110 nmand 110-1100 nm respectively are obtained. The structure, morphology, size, stability and optical properties of the products were investigated by x-ray diffraction (XRD), x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), ultraviolet-visible (UV-vis) absorption and photoluminescence. The band-gap value estimated from the UV-vis absorption spectrum is 4.15 eV. The as-synthesized ZnS shows blue (469 nm) and green (506 nm) broad emission bands when they are excited by visible light (439 nm). Possible formation mechanism is also discussed.