Mechanochemical dry synthesis of nanocrystalline semiconductors

The composition and properties of zinc sulphide ZnS, cadmium sulphide CdS and lead sulphide PbS prepared by mechanochemical dry synthesis from metal acetates and sodium sulphide precursors have been studied. ZnS, CdS and PbS have been obtained with estimated sizes 5 nm, 5 nm and 8 nm, respectively. The overall solid state synthesis route is a very straightforward and permitts the large quantities of semiconductors to be produced at an ambient temperature in a very reasonable time.