Effect of zinc oxide concentration in fluorescent ZnS:Mn/ZnO core–shell nanostructures

In the present work, we have prepared zinc sulphide (ZnS:Mn)/zinc oxide (ZnO) core–shell nanostructures by a chemical precipitation method and observed the effect of ZnO concentration on the fluorescent nanoparticles. Change in the morphological and optical properties of core–shell nanoparticles have been observed by changing the concentration of ZnO in a core–shell combination with optimum value of Mn to be 1 % in ZnS. The morphological studies have been carried out using X-ray diffraction (XRD) and transmission electron microscopy. It was found that diameter of ZnS:Mn nanoparticles was around 4–7 nm, each containing primary crystallites of size 2.4 nm which was estimated from the XRD patterns. The particle size increases with the increase in ZnO concentration leading to the well-known ZnO wurtzite phase which was coated on the FCC phase of ZnS:Mn. Band gap studies were performed by UV–visible spectroscopy and a red shift in absorption spectra have been observed with the addition of Mn as well as with the capping of ZnO on ZnS:Mn. The formation of core–shell nanostructures have been also confirmed by FTIR analysis. Photoluminescence studies show that emission wavelength is red shifted with the addition of ZnO layer on ZnS:Mn(1 %). These core–shell ZnS:Mn/ZnO nano-composites will be a very suitable material for specific kind of tunable optoelectronic devices.