Elucidating the structural properties of gold selenide nanostructures

Please read abstract in the article.Mintek and NRFhttp://rsc.li/njc2020-03-14hj2020Physic

Dichloro (bis[diphenylthiourea]) cadmium complex as a precursor for HDA-capped CdS nanoparticles and their solubility in water

A single-source precursor route has been explored by using the diphenylthiourea cadmium complex as the source of cadmium sulphide (CdS) nanoparticles. The reaction was carried out using hexadecylamine (HDA) as the solvent and stabilising agent for the particles. The phenylthiourea complex was synthesised and characterised by means of a combination of spectroscopic techniques, microanalysis and X-ray crystal structural analysis. The diphenylthiourea complex was thermolysed in HDA at 120 °C for 1 h to produce CdS nanoparticles. The CdS nanoparticles prepared were made water-soluble via a ligand exchange reaction involving the use of pyridine to displace HDA. The pyridine was, in turn, replaced by glucose and glucuronic acid. The absorption and emission spectra showed the typical features of quantum confinement for the nanoparticles for both HDA-capped and glucose- or glucuronic acid-capped CdS nanoparticles. The change in the capping groups, from HDA to glucose and glucuronic acid, resulted in absorption and emission features that were almost similar, with only slight red-shifting and tailing

Antimicrobial Activity of Amino Acid-Capped Zinc and Copper Sulphide Nanoparticles

The synthesis of polydispersed zinc sulphide and copper sulphide nanocrystals capped with polar L-alanine (Aln) and l-aspartic acid (Asp) molecules is reported. The resulting nanocrystals were characterized by UV-visible spectroscopy (UV-Vis), photoluminescence (PL), X-ray diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR). UV-Vis absorption spectra of all samples were blue-shifted from the bulk band edges due to quantum confinement effects. PL emission spectrum of the nanoparticles showed peaks at 453 and 433 nm for Aln-capped ZnS and CuS nanoparticles, respectively, while peaks for Asp-capped ZnS and CuS nanoparticles were observed at 455 and 367 nm, respectively. The average particle sizes for Aln-capped ZnS and Asp-capped ZnS nanoparticles synthesized at 35°C were measured to be 2.88 nm and 1.23 nm, respectively. The antibacterial properties were tested using different strains of both positive and negative bacteria and fungi. It was found that capped-copper sulphide nanoparticles were more effective against the bacteria than capped-zinc sulphide nanoparticles. Staphylococcus aureus (ATCC 25923) was the most susceptible one with an MIC of 0.05 mg/mL for uncapped-CuS nanoparticles while Pseudomonas aeruginosa (ATCC 15442) and Cryptococcus neoformans (ATCC 14116) were the least ones with the MIC of 3.125 mg/mL for both uncapped-CuS and Aln-capped CuS