Morphological influence of deposition routes on lead sulfide thin films
- Authors: Mlowe, Sixberth , Shombe, Ginena B , Akerman, Matthew P , Mubofu, Egid B , O'Brien, Paul , Mashazi, Philani N , Nyokong, Tebello , Revaprasadu, Neerish
- Date: 2019
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/186780 , vital:44533 , xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ica.2019.119116"
- Description: A distorted single crystal structure of bis(piperidinedithiocarbamato)lead(II) complex and its subsequent use to deposit thin films is reported. Two deposition routes namely, aerosol-assisted chemical vapour deposition (AACVD) and spin coating deposition have been employed to obtain anisotropic lead sulfide (PbS) nanostructures. The thin films displayed rod to cubic shaped crystals for AACVD, and a range of cubes, star and dendritic morphologies with variation of temperatures were displayed for spin coated films. Optical band gaps between 1.32 and 1.55 eV as controlled by the change in temperature were observed for thin films deposited by AACVD. Powder X-ray diffraction (P-XRD) studies show that the films formed are composed of cubic crystalline PbS. The X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) was used to investigate the effect of activation temperatures (350, 400 and 450 °C) on the chemical composition and oxidation states of PbS samples.
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Synthesis, density functional theory, molecular dynamics and electrochemical studies of 3-thiopheneacetic acid-capped gold nanoparticles
- Authors: Sosibo, Ndabenhle M , Mdluli, Phumlane S , Mashazi, Philani N , Dyan, Busiswa , Revaprasadu, Neerish , Nyokong, Tebello , Tshikhudo, Robert T , Skepu, Amanda , Van Der Lingen, Elma
- Date: 2012
- Subjects: To be catalogued
- Language: English
- Type: text , article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/246446 , vital:51477 , xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.molstruc.2011.09.057"
- Description: Gold nanoparticles capped with a bifunctional ligand, 3-thiopheneacetic acid (3-TAA) were synthesised by borohydride reduction at room temperature. The transmission electron microscopy (TEM) analysis showed that the particle aggregates and had semi-linear partial linkages that could be attributed to multi-modal binding of the ligand with various gold nanoparticles through the terminal thiolether (–S–) group and oxygen of the carboxylic (–COOH) group. This bimodal interaction led to limited stability of the resultant nanoparticles when tested using highly electrolytic media. To investigate further, density functional theory (DFT) quantum chemical and molecular dynamic calculations were conducted. The energetically favorable binding modes of the ligand to gold nanoparticle surfaces using the Gaussian program were studied. The DFT results showed kinetic stability of Au–3-TAA–Au interactions leading to inter-particle coupling or aggregation. Electrochemical analysis of the resultant nature of the capping agent revealed that 3-thiopheneacetic acid did not form a polymer during the preparation of Au–3-TAA. The cyclic voltammograms of Au–3-TAA nanoparticles coated glassy carbon electrode showed a typical gold character with the oxidation and reduction peaks at 1.4 V and 0.9 V, respectively.
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