Project Guide: Dr.

Karamjit Singh
Lecturer
Department of Applied Sciences, C.I.E.T.

Student Name: Tinu Bansal (6050405066)

 Intrinsic and extrinsic semiconductor
nanocryatals seem to be good candidate for
modern era optoelectronic and photo-
catalytic applications due to their size tunable
photo-physical and photo-chemical
properties.
 In the present investigation, study of the
luminescence properties and the photo-
catalytic activity of the synthesized
nanocrystals have been carried out.
 Literature Survey:
 After the review of the literature, bottom-up
synthesis technique chemical co-precipitation
method was found to be the most suitable
method for the synthesis of nanocrystals.
 This technique involves the mixing of the
precursor salts of the various elements in the
stochiometric proportion in the presence of the
capping agent under constant stirring.
 Synthesis of the materials:
 A number of samples of intrinsic and extrinsic
nano-semiconductor materials have been
synthesized using colloidal chemical co-
precipitation method.
 Synthesized materials have been collected in the
culture tube for their testing.
 Morphological Characterization:
 Morphological characterization involves the study
of size and shape of the material.
 For this purpose, Transmission Electron
Microscopy (TEM) has been done, which makes
use of the highly accelerated electron beam
focused on the sample to take the magnified
image of the material particles.
 Crystallographic Characterization:
 Crystallographic characterization involves the
study of material structure.
 In order to study these properties, X-Ray
Diffraction (XRD) pattern of the synthesized
materials has been recorded using Panalytical’s
X’Pert Pro Powder X-ray diffractometer.
 Photo-catalytic Activity:
 This involves the study of the photo-catalytic activity
potential of the sample to degrade the organic and
inorganic contaminants.
 Photo-catalytic activity of the synthesized
nanomaterials has been tested under UV and sun light
irradiation using Methylene Blue (MB) dye as test
contaminant in aqueous media.
 Optical Characterization:
 Optical characterization of the synthesized
nanomaterials have been done by recording the
steady state luminescence spectra using
spectroflourometer.
 Energy of various radiative transitions have been
calculated from the observed spectra.
 Moreover, the effect of dopant concentration on
photo-catalytic activity and luminescence
behavior has been tried to establish.
 Figure 1. shows the XRD patterns of the as
prepared and annealed samples of ZnS:Ni2+. X-
ray diffractogram shown in fig. 1(a) is broadened
due to small size of nanocrystals. Comparison of
the recorded XRD pattern with the standard
JCPDS data files reveal that the structure of ZnS
correspond to Zinc Blende crystal. And that of
annealed sample, corresponds to the wurtzite
phase of ZnS.
 Figure 2. shows the uniform distribution of the
particles and the average size calculated from
TEM is ~3nm.
 Figure 3. shows the photo-degradation of the
MB dye which reveals that the photo-
catalytic activity increases with the increase
in the dopant concentration.
 Figure 4. represents the steady state
luminescence spectrum. When the material is
excited with 325 nm wavelength, a broad
emission peak is being observed of
wavelength 429 nm.
FIGURE 1(A) FIGURE 1(B)
Figure 4.(steady state luminescence
spectrum)
Individual Contribution
 My major project was on the research basis.
 During the whole duration of my project, I was
being continuously guided by my Mr. Karamjit
Singh. I am very thankful to him for his invaluable
guidance.
 I am also grateful to Mr. Rajvir Singh (Major project
coordinator) for his kind help during the whole
period.
 This project would not be possible without their
blessings.
 Thank you.