Patterning and photoluminescence of CdS nanocrystallites on silk fibroin fiber

CdS nanocrystallites could be formed and assembled into nanoparticle strings and hexagons on natural silk fibroin fiber (SFF) through a room-temperature bio-inspired process. Herein, the biomaterial SFF served as reactive substrate, not only provides the in situ formation sites for CdS nanocrystallites, but also directs the arrangement of nanocrystalline CdS simultaneously. The photoluminescence (PL) of the resulting nanocomposites CdS/SFF is investigated extensively. The PL peaks observed from CdS nanoparticle strings are similar to those of separate CdS nanoparticles, corresponding to the band-edge emission of their individual building blocks (QD-CdS). Moreover, CdS nanoparticle hexagons perform a red-shifted and broadened emission peak.