An in Situ Template Route for Fabricating Metal Chalcogenide Hollow Spherical Assemblies Sonochemically
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FULL PAPER An in situ Template Route for Fabricating Metal Chalcogenide Hollow Spherical Assemblies Sonochemically Shu Xu,[a] Hui Wang,[a] Jun-Jie Zhu,*[a] Xin-Quan Xin,[a] and Hong-Yuan Chen[a] Keywords: Sonochemistry / Nanostructures / Self-assembly / Metal chalcogenides / Hollow spheres An ultrasound-assisted in situ template approach has been tion of the intermediate templates and in the crystal-growth developed for fabricating a series of nanoscale metal chalco- process. This approach provides a convenient and efficient genides in the form of well-defined hollow spherical assem- one-step pathway to the large-scale fabrication of hollow blies. These hollow spherical assemblies have well-con- spherical nanostructures. It also represents a new demonstra- trolled dimensions and are composed of uniform nanopart- tion of sonochemical effects on the formation and assembly icles. Initially, metal hydroxide particles self-assemble into of crystalline particles on the nanometer scale. spherical templates generated in situ, and subsequent sur- face crystal growth leads to hollow spherical structures. ( Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, 69451 Weinheim, Ultrasound irradiation plays a critical role both in the forma- Germany, 2004) Introduction of a polymer or some other material is prepared as a tem- plate; then, assembly is carried out on the surface of the Much attention has been devoted lately to developing core to obtain a coreϪshell structure; finally, the core is methods for preparing, connecting, and assembling semi- removed to form the hollow structure. A widely adopted conductor nanocrystals. The well-ordered assemblies, un- and quickly developed template method is the LBL self- like nanoparticles or single crystals, have new properties assembly technique, which is based on the use of electro- suitable for building fine powders or other functional mate- static interactions or hydrogen bonding between alternate rials. Over the last decades the novel properties and appli- layers of materials deposited on a surface. This technique cations of these materials, including mesoporous structures, can be applied to the coating of colloids.[5,18,19] However, networks, coreϪshell spherical materials, and a series of only a few hollow spheres of silica, zeolite, and other [1Ϫ9] wire- or rod-like assemblies have been exhibited. Es- magnetic materials have been fabricated by using this strat- pecially the assembled hollow spherical materials are im- egy because of the difficulty in the removal of the template portant because of their many potential applications in cores. For this reason, we are still trying to find some new various fields of chemistry, biotechnology, and materials methods with the goal of avoiding the disassembly of the science. For example, they can be used for the transport, shell in the process of removing the cores to produce the controlled storage, and release of chemical and biological final hollow spherical materials, or of even generating hol- products such as drugs, for the protection of biologically low spherical structures directly without a coreϪshell step active macromolecules, and in the field of catalysis and wa- (Scheme 1). [10Ϫ13] ste removal. Until now, most methods for the fabri- Ultrasound waves that are intense enough to produce cation of inorganic materials with hollow spherical struc- cavitations can drive chemical reactions such as oxidation, tures were based on a number of well-developed techniques, reduction, dissolution, decomposition, and poly- such as the nozzle reaction system, emulsion/water extrac- merization.[22Ϫ33] Ultrasound irradiation has also been em- tion, layer-by-layer (LBL) self-assembly, and sacrificial ployed to prepare a series of polymer core/metal oxide shell [5,14Ϫ21] coreϪshell techniques. particles and a cadmium selenide hollow spherical Currently, the template-directed assembly of nanodimen- material.[9,22,26,34Ϫ36] In recent years, the sonochemical sional materials is arousing increasing interest due to its method has been proven to be convenient and effective in unique advantages in the control over shape, orientation, the fabrication of porous structures. It has been discovered and crystal growth. It usually takes three steps to prepare that the ultrasound wave has a strong effect on the congre- hollow spherical assemblies: first, a colloidal core consisting gation and self-assembly of nanoparticles. Gedanken’s group has established this procedure as a route to produce [a] State Key Laboratory of Coordination Chemistry, Department some tubular assemblies and a variety of mesoporous oxide of Chemistry, Nanjing University, [37Ϫ39] Nanjing 210093, P. R. China materials. The advantage of the application of ultra- E-mail: [email protected] sound irradiation to the synthesis of mesoporous materials Eur. J. Inorg. Chem. 2004, 4653Ϫ4659 DOI: 10.1002/ejic.200400242 2004 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim 4653 FULL PAPER S. Xu, H. Wang, J.-J. Zhu, X.-Q. Xin, H.-Y. Chen CdS, and CuS particles were estimated to be about 7 nm, 7 nm, and 10 nm, respectively. Scheme 1. Proposed mechanism for the synthesis of hollow- sphere materials is the significant reduction in fabrication time and the pos- Figure 1. Powder XRD pattern of hollow spherical assemblies: (a) sibility to induce the aggregation of nanoparticles into po- CdSe; (b) CdS; (c) CuS rous structures without destroying the micellar structure. Hence, this method provides an effective surface assembly route for the controllable synthesis of spatially structured XPS measurements supply further evidence for the com- materials. position and purity of the products. All peaks were cali- We have extended the sonochemical method to the syn- brated by using C(1s) (284.6 eV) as the reference. The two [40] thesis of hollow spherical nanostructural materials. An peaks located at 405.5 eV and 412.3 eV were assigned to in situ template route was developed for fabricating a series Cd(3d). The peaks at 54.5 eV, 162.2 eV, and 932 eV corre- of metal chalcogenide hollow spherical assemblies in an spond to Se(3d), S(2p), and Cu(2p), respectively. According aqueous system. It is a general approach for fabricating hol- to the measurements, the ratio Cd/Se is approximately 6:4, low spherical materials directly, which makes it possible to which shows that the sample of the CdSe assembly is rich avoid the step of removing the template core. in cadmium at the surface. The measurements also show that the ratio Cd/S is approximately 6:4 and the ratio Cu/S is approximately 1.1:1. Results and Discussion In the TEM images (Figure 2, a, b), uniform hollow CdSe spheres with an average diameter of 120 nm are ob- Characterization of Hollow-Sphere Assemblies served. These hollow spheres consist of spherical nanopart- icles about 5 nm in size. The HRTEM image (Figure 2, c) Cadmium selenide, cadmium sulfide, and copper sulfide of a single hollow sphere exhibits the clear crystalline lattice hollow spherical assemblies were prepared. To study the of CdSe particles on the spherical surface and the hollow properties and morphology of the products, characteri- inside can also be observed clearly. The SAED (Figure 2, zation techniques including powder XRD, TEM, XPS, d) recorded on a CdSe hollow sphere shows the presence of SAED, UV/Vis absorption and fluorescence spectroscopy clear diffraction rings, which correspond to the cubic phase were employed. of CdSe with polycrystalline nature. In Figure 3, uniform hollow CdS spheres with an average diameter of 120 nm are XRD, XPS Studies, and TEM Observations observed. The surface structure of the CdS spheres is the The X-ray diffraction patterns for the products are shown same as that of the hollow CdSe spheres assembled from in Figure 1. The diffraction peak in pattern (a) indicates nanoparticles about 5 nm in size. Figure 4 shows the TEM that the CdSe particles are crystallized in the pure cubic image of the CuS hollow spheres with diameters ranging phase (JCPDS No. 19-191), pattern (b) corresponds to the from 150 to 300 nm. These spheres are made up of CuS pure cubic phase CdS (JCPDS No.75-0581), and pattern (c) nanoparticles about 8 nm in size. The shell of the CuS belongs to pure CuS crystals (JCPDS No. 03-1090). No sphere is thinner than that of the hollow CdSe and CdS peaks of any other impurities were detected, indicating the spheres, so the hollow space inside is very distinct. The high purity of the products. According to the TEM images confirm that all the spheres for all three com- DebyeϪScherrer equation,[41] the average sizes of the CdSe, pounds are hollow. 4654 2004 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim www.eurjic.org Eur. J. Inorg. Chem. 2004, 4653Ϫ4659 Metal Chalcogenide Hollow Spherical Assemblies FULL PAPER Optical Characterization The UV/Vis absorbance spectra of the prepared hollow spherical materials were measured and their correlative op- tical band gaps were calculated according to the following Equation, where A is a constant, α is the absorption coef- ficient, and m ϭ 3 for a direct and m ϭ 1 for an indirect transition.[42] m/2 α(ν) ϭ A·[hν/(2 Ϫ Eg)] The CdSe assembly has its absorbance peak at 350 nm. Its direct band gap is calculated to be 2.7 eV, which is much larger than the reported value for bulk CdSe (Eg ϭ 1.7 eV).[43] This band-gap value, which indicates the quan- tum size effect of this sample, equals that of the 7 nm quan- tum CdSe nanoparticles prepared. It offers further evidence that these spherical assemblies are made up of smaller nan- oparticles. The direct band gap of the hollow CdS assembl- ies is calculated to be 2.11 eV. The equation with m ϭ 1 is Figure 2. TEM and HRTEM images of the CdSe assemblies in the used for the indirect transition to the copper sulfide nano- presence of ammonia after sonication for 30 min (concentration of particles, since copper sulfide is a typical indirect semicon- NH3: 0.8 mol/L): (a, b) TEM images of the product, (c) HRTEM [44] image of an individual CdSe hollow-spherical assembly, (d) [inset ductor.