Luminescent Properties of Doped Nanoparticles. Preparation of ZnS with Manganese, Copper, and Silver Dopants

This paper describes an experiment suitable for the advanced inorganic or physical chemistry laboratory. Three-and-a-half-nanometer-diameter (as approximated by the Brus equation) zinc sulfide nanoparticles are synthesized with and without 1% copper, silver, or manganese dopants. The particles are analyzed via UV–vis and luminescence spectroscopy. This spectroscopic analysis can be used to measure particle sizes of fresh and aged ZnS. UV–vis spectroscopy also indicates that the particle size is unaffected by the added dopant, but the position of the emission maxima shifts as much as 170 nm with added dopants due to modifications in the valence and conduction bands.