Papers by Keyword: Semiconductor Nanomaterials

Abstract: Heterogeneous semiconductor based photocatalytic hydrogen (H₂) production by water splitting is one of the widely recognized promising sustainable technologies to deliver clean energy for future energy demands. The present review article mainly focus on the overview of principle of water splitting, different semiconductor nanomaterials used for photocatalytic water splitting in the presence of UV and solar light irradiation, role of sacrificial reagents, simultaneous degradation of pollutants and H₂ production reaction, strategy for development of efficient photocatalyst for H₂ production. Further the flaws associated with present photocatalytic system like recombination rate of electron–hole pairs, low visible-light response, use of hazardous irradiation sources and surface area of photocatalyst etc. has also been discussed. Recently the use of energy efficient light emitting diodes (LEDs) as an irradiation source for H₂ production is highly attracted due to its unique characteristics. Recent literature on LED source based photocatalytic system for H₂ production has also been summarized and highlighted. At last, the future prospects and challenges towards the designing of better photocatalytic system for H₂ production have also been discussed. From the literature survey, it is concluded that construction of efficient photocatalytic system for simultaneous degradation of pollutants and H₂ production under energy efficient irradiation source offer clean and simple system for solving the futuristic environmental concerns and energy crisis.

Abstract: In recent years, semiconductor nanomaterials have been extensively studied and reports are available for their preparation methods, physical and chemical properties of nanoparticles and their characterization techniques. Because of their potential applications, ZnS nanoparticles are recently major area of research. It is an important inorganic material for a variety of applications including photoconductors, solar cells, field effect transistors, sensors, transducers optical coatings and light-emitting materials. Inorganic nano-particles have found potential application in various electronic devices. Synthesis, shape and size control are important issues for nano-particles research. Various nano-structured materials have found potential applications in optical and electrical devices such as photoconductors, LEDs, solar cells, field effect transistors, optical coatings etc. ZnS has wide band gap ranging from 3.5 to 3.8 eV at room temperature and the band gap can be tuned in the UV region by controlling the size of the nano-particles. In the present work we have studied the synthesis of ZnS nano-particles, their characterization to investigate various properties such as size, structure, band gap and luminescence via different characterization tools. The particles were then used as acceptors for fabrication of organic hybrid solar cells.