Synthesis and characterization of thiophenol passivated Fe-doped ZnS nanoparticles

Nanoparticles of Zn1−xFexS with x = 0.0, 0.1, 0.2, 0.4 and 0.6 were synthesized by chemical co-precipitation method, using thiophenol as the conditioning reagent. These nanoparticles were characterized by EDAX, XRD, TEM, optical absorption and magnetic studies. XRD studies revealed that the phase singularity of ZnS particles having zincblende (cubic) structure. TEM as well as XRD line broadening indicated that the average crystallite size in the samples was about 7 nm. The optical absorption studies show a blue shift of the fundamental absorption edge with increasing Fe2+ doping. Magnetization measurements at room temperature revealed that all the doped samples were ferromagnetic in nature.