Scalable production of microbially-mediated ZnS nanoparticles and application to functional thin films

Journal Article · Wed Jan 01 00:00:00 EST 2014 · Acta Biomaterialia

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actbio.2014.06.005· OSTI ID:1154787

Moon, Ji Won ^[1]; Ivanov, Ilia N ^[1]; Joshi, Pooran C ^[1]; Armstrong, Beth L ^[1]; Wang, Wei ^[1]; Jung, Hyunsung ^[1]; Jellison, Jr, Gerald Earle ^[1]; Meyer, III, Harry M ^[1]; Jang, Gyoung Gug ^[2]; Meisner, Roberta ^[2]; Duty, Chad E ^[1]; Phelps, Tommy Joe ^[1]

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1. ORNL
2. Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL)

A series of semiconducting zinc sulfide (ZnS) nanoparticles were scalably, reproducibly, controllably, and economically synthesized with anaerobic metal-reducing Thermoanaerobacter species. They reduced partially oxidized sulfur sources to sulfides that extracellularly and thermodynamically incorporated with zinc ions to produce sparingly soluble ZnS nanoparticles with ~5 nm crystallites at yields of ~5 g l 1 month 1. A predominant sphalerite formation was facilitated by rapid precipitation kinetics, low cation/anion ratio, higher zinc concentration, water stabilization, or some combination of the four. The sphalerite ZnS nanoparticles exhibited narrow size distribution, high emission intensity, and few native defects. Scale-up and emission tunability using copper-doping were confirmed spectroscopically. Surface characterization was determined using Fourier transform infrared and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopies, which confirmed amine and carboxylic acid not only maintaining a nano-dimensional average crystallite size, but also increasing aggregation. Application of ZnS nanoparticle ink to a functional thin film was successfully tested for potential future applications.

• Research Organization: Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States). Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences (CNMS); Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States). High Temperature Materials Lab. (HTML)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE)
• DOE Contract Number: DE-AC05-00OR22725
• OSTI ID: 1154787
• Journal Information: Acta Biomaterialia, Vol. 10, Issue 10; ISSN 1742-7061
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English