Facile hydrothermal synthesis and characterization of novel Co-doped ZnS nanoparticles with superior physical properties

This study utilized simple hydrothermal conditions for developing novel Co(x)Zn(1-x)S nanosphere particles with varying Co doping ratios (0.0 ≤ x < 0.09). We analyzed the samples for structural, morphological, and optical parameters, taking special care to correlate all these aspects. The structural analysis by x-ray diffraction (XRD) reveals that both pure ZnS nanoparticles and Co(x)Zn(1-x)S nanospheres possess crystalline and cubic-phase purity. The Williamson-Hall method employed XRD line profile analysis to evaluate the microstructural characteristics of the nanoparticles. The crystallite size in the doped samples varied from 5.8 nm to 8 nm, contingent upon the cobalt concentration in the zinc sulfide lattice. The field emission scanning electron microscopy analysis verified that the obtained nanoparticles had a uniform spherical morphology and narrow size distribution. UV-Vis spectroscopy indicates that the …