Improving the Production of Self-Assembled ZnS:Mn Nanocrystals through the Modification of Sol Gel – Spin Coating Approaches

Abstract

It is difficult to produce a good film consisted of nanocrystals with good alignment. So far, a lot of methods and especially expensive vacuum-based methods have been used to produce such films. In this paper, sol gel and spin coating method were introduced. The combination of these simple and cheaper methods was used because of the high potential of those methods to produce good quality nanocrystals. First, nanocrystals were produced by sol gel method and later spin coating was done to control the thickness of the nanocrystals film. During the spin coating process, a metal tape was used to avoid solution from splashing out from the glass substrate. Subsequently, nanocrystals film was heated up from room temperature to 400 °C. To study the alignment of nanocrystals, Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscopy (FE-SEM) was used. Through this analysis, we found that the nanocrystals was in spherical pattern and the alignment of this film was well arrayed. Here, the combination of the two cheaper and simpler methods can be used to produce good quality of nanocrystals thin film and at the same time can save our research cost.

Effect of Annealing Temperature and Spin Coating Speed on Mn-Doped ZnS Nanocrystals Thin Film by Spin Coating

“…to synthesize nanocrystalline thin film and to control its crystal size [11]. Sol-gel is a cheap chemical method that fabricates material through the process of phase change from liquid phase (sol) to solid phase (gel) [12][13][14]. Fabrication that employs this method will usually be entailed by either spin coating or dip coating process followed by heat treatment process.…”