Effects of heat treatment on physical, microstructural and optical characteristics of PbS luminescent nanocrystals

The oxidation of lead sulfide (PbS) luminescent nanocrystals (NCs) considerably changes their luminescence characteristics. Hence, an understanding of the oxidation mechanism, the structure and properties of oxidized moieties is important. In this research, well-defined spherical PbS NCs were synthesized via a simple, effective and surfactant-free method and characterized. Then, the effects of heat treatment (at 250, 350, 450 and 550 °C) on the PbS NCs were investigated. The transmission electron microscope (TEM) micrographs of the synthesized PbS NCs revealed that they had a well-defined spherical morphology. In addition, the average crystallite size using Scherrerʹs formula was about 13 nm and the calculated lattice constant using Braggʹs equation was 0.5950 nm, which was very close to the value in the standard card (JCPDS No. 5-592). Furthermore, the X-ray diffraction (XRD) revealed that the heat treatment of samples at temperatures of 250, 350,450 and 550 °C in air results in the formation of oxide sulfate phase of the compositions PbSO4 and PbO·PbSO4. The lattice parameter, crystallite size, average internal stress, micro-strain and optical properties of PbS NCs were calculated and correlated with the heat-treatment temperature.