Particle Size Distribution Measurements of Manganese-Doped ZnS Nanoparticles

Abstract

We performed particle size and particle size distribution measurements for L-cysteine-stabilized ZnS/Mn nanoparticles in the size region below 10 nm. For this we applied transmission electron microscopy (TEM), analytical ultracentrifugation (AUC), dynamic light scattering (DLS), and asymmetric flow field flow fractionation (aF-FFF) measurements, and we calculated particle sizes with the help of X-ray diffraction (XRD) patterns and the shift of the band gap absorption in the UV-vis spectrum. The different methods are explained, and their limitations are discussed, with the conclusion that only a combination of different techniques can yield a realistic and complete picture about the size distribution of the sample. From these methods TEM, AUC, DLS, and aF-FFF measure the actual particle size distribution either in dispersion or after drying of the sample, whereas the particle size obtained from XRD patterns and with the help of the band gap widening corresponds to the average size of the crystal domains within the particles. We obtained particle size distributions with their maximum between 3 and 7 nm and a mean crystallite size of 3.5-4 nm.The synthesis of nanometer-sized colloidal particles has been intensively studied in recent years because of their considerable technological and fundamental scientific interest. This arises from the remarkable variations in fundamental physical properties that occur when one changes from a macroscopic solid to a particle consisting of a countable number of atoms.1-3 Semiconductor nanoparticles have attracted profound interest in the past. Variation of fundamental characteristics ranging from phase transitions to electrical conductivity can be induced by controlling the size of these crystals. 4,5 These changes arise from a spatial confinement of the exciton when the particle reaches the size of the de Broglie wavelength. This leads to a widening of the band gap with decreasing particle size. 6 Applications are found in the field of medical and biological sensors where such particles represent a promising alternative to commonly used organic dyes, due to their change of emission color with particle size. 7,8 Since these changes depend on the size of the system, size characterization techniques are necessary to predict the degree of variation in physical properties.9 However, most reports on semiconductor nanoparticles deal with the optical properties of these crystals and do not pay attention to particle size (distributions) apart from transmission electron microscopy images and crystallite sizes derived from X-ray diffraction patterns.There are a vast number of methods for particle size analysis, and the detailed description and comparison between them is clearly beyond the scope of this work. However, the used techniques will briefly be described in the next section.In this work, we have applied a range of analytical techniques for the determination of particle sizes to investigate the information content and limitations of the different measurements. A similar study was ...

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