Ricinoleic Acid as a Green Alternative to Oleic Acid in the Synthesis of Doped Nanocrystals

摘要

Ricinoleic acid,extracted from the castor bean,is a cheap,abundant and naturally sourced capping agent for nanocrystals that offers the ability to functionalise the as-synthesized nanocrystals through the use of the hydroxyl group,an advantage over oleic acid obtained from olives.In this work,we demonstrate the use of zinc and manganese ricinoleate complexes as green precursors for the synthesis of manganesedoped zinc sulphide,MnxZn_(1-x)S.The metal ricinoleate complexes perform well as precursors for MnxZn_(1-x)S making the parent binary materials and alloys up to approx.x=0.07.The MnxZn_(1-x)S nanocrystals behave in the same manner as demonstrated previously in the literature with the photoluminescent performance decreasing and the EPR signals undergoing spectral line broadening with increased Mn doping beyond the dilute limit,i.e.x > 0.02.