Hydrothermal synthesis and characterization of ZnS microspheres and hollow nanospheres

ZnS hollow nanospheres have been hydrothermally synthesized at 200 °C for 4 h. In same condition ZnS microspheres were obtained when using acrylamide as the surfactant. XRD pattern indicates as-prepared sample is cubic ZnS with cell constant a = 5.391 Å and the average size of ZnS particles was 6.5 nm estimating from the Debye–Scherrer formula. TEM observed the hollow nanospheres have the diameters ranging from 200 to 300 nm with a shell thickness of about 40 nm. UV–vis and PL spectra recorded the optical properties of the sample, a blue-shift (∼19 nm) was observed. It appears that the hollow spheres might be formed by soft-template of gas bubbles of SO2 produced during the reaction.