Facile Synthesis and Spectroscopic Studies of SiO2-Core/ZnS-Shell Nanostructure

SiO2/ZnS core/shell nanostructures have been synthesized at room temperature by a simple wet chemical method. The prepared materials are characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), infrared spectroscopy (IR), UV–vis spectroscopic and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) studies. X-ray diffraction pattern exhibits peaks correspond to the cubic phase of ZnS. The morphological studies revealed the uniformity in size distribution with core size of 250 nm and shell thickness of 14 nm. From UV–Vis spectra the band gap energies are calculated. The band gap of ZnS has been determined as 3.70 eV directly from the absorption maximum of ZnS, λmax = 335 nm. The band gap of the bulk ZnS is 3.54 eV.