An Effective Two‐Emulsion Approach to the Synthesis of Doped ZnS Crystalline Nanostructures

Abstract

The controlled, room-temperature synthesis of M-doped (M = Cu-II, Mn-II, Sm-III, Gd-III, or Tb-II) ZnS nanostructures (with an average crystallite size of 5-10 nm) in the confined space of miniemulsion droplets is reported herein and discussed. The adopted synthetic route is a colloidal method, ideally suited to easily achieve small particle size and narrow size distribution. The synthesized functional nanostructures crystallize in the sphalerite lattice, as determined by powder X-ray diffraction. In addition to structural characterization, several complementary techniques, such as X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, thermogravimetric analysis, differential scanning calorimetry, micro-Raman spectroscopy, inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry, and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy were used to determine chemical and physical properties as well as the microstructural features of our products. As far as the morphological aspects of the obtained samples are concerned, they were studied by means of scanning and transmission electron microscopies. Finally, the local structure around dopant ions was unravelled by means of X-ray absorption spectroscopy, in particular through extended X-ray absorption fine structure measurements carried out at the Zn, S, and dopant K or L-3 edges. This information has been complemented with the investigation of the photoluminescence properties

Room‐Temperature Crystallization of CuS Nanostructures for Photothermal Applications through a Nanoreactor Approach

“…As previously reported for the synthesis by ME, the surfactant can remain physisorbed on the surface of the obtained products . In our case, the presence of the two surfactants used during the synthesis can be detected by Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy and thermogravimetric analysis–differential scanning calorimetry (TGA‐DSC) analyses.…”

“…Interestingly, the adopted procedure was already effective in pursuing the crystallization of the covellite polymorph at room temperature. Inverse miniemulsions have already been successfully used to synthesize inorganic nanoparticles and nanocomposites, following three different approaches (sol‐gel process,, decomposition, and precipitation). Extension of this last synthetic route to CuS is reported here for the first time.…”

Functionalisation of Colloidal Transition Metal Sulphides Nanocrystals: A Fascinating and Challenging Playground for the Chemist

“…Limiting the attention to wet chemistry approaches, a wide plethora of synthetic routes has been proposed in the literature to prepare metal sulphide colloids ranging from non-aqueous sol-gel routes [70][71][72][73], hydro/solvothermal [24,[74][75][76][77][78][79][80][81][82][83][84][85][86], to sono- [19, and radiochemistry [111][112][113][114][115][116][117], laser ablation [118,119], micro- [120][121][122][123][124][125][126][127][128][129][130] and miniemulsion synthesis [131][132][133][134][135][136][137][138], seeded-growth [139] and nucleation/g...…”

Synthesis and characterization of new ferrocene, porphyrin and C60 triads, connected by triple bonds

“…In this framework, to achieve crystallisation through the use of low temperature and sustainable processes based on cheap and safe chemicals represents a challenging playground in modern inorganic chemistry [1,2]. In these last years, we have developed in our group different low temperature (T<150°C) wet and green chemistry routes [3] to prepare different inorganic functional nanomaterials, ranging from i) ferrites [4], to manganites [5], to pure and doped ii) transition metal metal oxides [6][7][8], sulphides [9][10] and halogenides [11], to iii) metal/metal oxide nanocomposites [10]. The adopted wet chemistry routes are i) miniemulsions [3, 6-7, 9, 11,12], affording crystallisation in confined space and typically at room temperature, ii) coprecipitation combined with hydrothermal route [4][5] to 3) or iii) more classical colloidal routes [8,10], as well as combination thereof.…”

“…Our results show that trinuclear copper(II) complexes are the major species observed in the range of 2:1 to 4:1 metal to ligand ratio. The Cu/ Aβ(1-16) dimer revealed a distinct Cu(II) coordination mode with respect to the Aβ (1)(2)(3)(4)(5)(6)(7)(8)(9)(10)(11)(12)(13)(14)(15)(16) monomer. This finding may be of relevance considering the greater toxicity of lowmolecular-weight Aβ oligomers in AD.…”