Simultaneous control of the size
and chemical composition is an
advantageous strategy to obtain the desired photochemical properties
of multinary semiconductor nanocrystals, ZnS-AgInS2 solid
solution ((AgIn)
x
Zn2(1–x)S2, ZAIS) nanocrystals (NCs), being different
from conventional binary nanocrystals. The energy gap (E
g) of ZAIS NCs was enlarged with a decrease in particle
size due to the quantum size effect or with an increase in ZnS content
in the ZAIS solid solution. The levels of the conduction band edge
and valence band edge, determined by photoelectron spectroscopy in
air, were shifted more negatively and more positively, respectively,
with an increase in E
g. A volcano-type
dependence was observed between the PL quantum yield (QY) and the
size of ZAIS NCs, in which the optimal PL QY for each x value was obtained at a similar particle size around 5–6
nm, except for x = 1.0, and maximum QY was recorded
to be 79% for ZAIS NCs prepared with x = 0.5. The
photocatalytic activity for H2 evolution was also greatly
dependent on both the size and the chemical composition of ZAIS NCs,
and then the highest activity was observed for ZAIS NCs having an
average diameter of about 4.2–5.5 nm and E
g of 2.3–2.4 eV. This can be reasonably explained
by the enlargement of the driving force to reduce protons in the solution
with a negative shift of the conduction band edge of ZAIS NCs and
by the quenching of photoexcited ZAIS NCs with an increase in the
amount of surface defect sites and/or with the formation of deeper
trap sites along with a decrease in the particle size.
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