Towards Visible LED Illumination: ZnO-ZnS Nanocomposite Particles

Abstract

Nowadays photo semiconductors such as ZnO are one of the driving forces of humanity towards economically and ecological safe life. Such semiconductors are used in solar applications and for light emission but also multiple investigations using the material as photocatalysts (water-splitting), or as photo initiators were published. The combination of the inorganic material with an organic matrix leads to possible interesting hybrid materials. One drawback for ZnO and other photo semiconductors is the short UV wavelength (in the UV−range) which is necessary to photoactivation. We will present the possibility of modified ZnS-ZnO nanocomposites being reactive towards visible light for example 406 nm LED illumination. Therefore, the particles are used as initiators for free radical polymerization. The simply to handle experimental preparation procedure of the sulphur containing ≈10 nm particles is described in this work for the first time.