Synthesis and photoluminescence of ZnS macrolattice

ZnS macrolattice has been synthesized by an ultrasonication-assisted method. It is a face-centred cubic stucture with a lattice constant of about 5.4 nm. Each basis in one unit cell composes of about 1,400 atoms. The d-spacing of the macrolattice is about 10 times to that of ordinary sphalerite crystalline. The new structure can be confirmed by small angle X-ray diffraction, high-resolve TEM and selected area electron diffraction. The emission spectrum of the ZnS macrolattice consists of two main peaks at about 333 and 349 nm, respectively under 236 nm excitation. However, it consists of only one main peak at about 438 nm under 370 nm excitation and only one main peak at about 530 nm under 473 nm excitation. The near band transition about 349 nm demonstrates that the valence band composed of P-type function on the S atom splits to two bands. The conduct band has also split because of many peaks in the excitation spectra. In addition, some defect energy levels must appear in the band gap because blue and green emissions are observed.