Synthesis and characterization of chiral Ag2S and Ag2S-Zn nanocrystals

• Published in: RSC advances Vol. 4; no. 95; pp. 53142 - 53148
• Main Authors: Liu, Ying-Fan, Wang, Lei, Shi, Wan-Zhen, Zhang, Yan-Hui, Fang, Shao-Ming
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: 01.01.2014
• Subjects: aqueous solutions; asymmetry; bioimaging; catalytic activity; circular dichroism spectroscopy; crystal structure; fluorescence; nanocrystals; photoluminescence; silver sulfide; X-ray diffraction; zinc
• ISSN: 2046-2069; 2046-2069
• DOI: 10.1039/c4ra08360a

This study focused on the synthesis of novel chiral Ag 2 S and Ag 2 S-Zn nanocrystals (NCs) with chiral Pen as a capping reagent in an aqueous solution. Luminescence studies indicated that all the prepared Ag 2 S and Ag 2 S-Zn NCs exhibited size-tunable photoluminescence (PL) emission at 500-700 nm. Compared with Ag 2 S, the PL emission of the Ag 2 S-Zn NCs could improve by around 2.4-fold. XRD peaks of the as-prepared Ag 2 S NCs were weak, whereas the XRD peaks of the Ag 2 S-Zn NCs had the characteristics of a monoclinic crystal structure. The circular dichroism (CD) test showed that the prepared NCs revealed a clear mirror-image relationship in their CD signals at 300-700 nm, and Zn 2+ played a key role in the Cotton effect of the NCs. The chiral and fluorescent properties of these NCs are likely to find widespread applications in bioimaging, chemical and biosensing, and possibly in asymmetry catalysis. Ag 2 S-Zn NCs exhibited tunable PL emission at 500-700 nm and a clear mirror-image relationship in their CD signals.