Dy3+-doped Zinc sulfide (ZnS) nanoparticles had been prepared via bio-inspired procedure and were characterized. All samples had cubic zinc blende structures. The typical sample had spherical structure with a diameter of ca. 68 nm. With increasing Dy3+-doped concentration, the bands attributed to C-O were shifted, due to the presence of Dy3+ ion in ZnS lattice site. The obtained bandgap were apparently lower than the reference value (~3.72 eV), beneficial for the photo-catalytic application. With increase of Dy3+-doped concentrations, enhanced photoluminescence (PL) of the sample at 1% was attributed to large number of sulfur vacancies. The broad band with blue-green emission at ~ 500 nm indicated a considerable number of zinc vacancies to impart green emission and 4F9/2-6H15/2 transitions of Dy3+ ions to impart blue emission.
Keywords: Semiconductors, Crystal growth, Optical properties, X-ray diffraction, Crystal structure.