ZnS porous fluorescent nanostructures synthesized by a soft template approach

Porous ZnS precursors were prepared by soft template method and Soxhlet extraction method. We used three surfactants with different molecular weight, which included ODA, Pluronic P123, and Pluronic F127, as soft template agents. Nitrogen adsorption–desorption results indicated that larger molecular weight and larger amounts of the template agent made porous ZnS precursors with larger pore sizes and smaller specific surface areas. The final ZnS fluorescent samples were obtained through calcinations method in tube furnace. The emission peaks of ZnS porous fluorescent samples were approximately 490 nm because of zinc vacancy, which was similar to ZnS nanoparticles. However, the emission intensity of porous ZnS fluorescent samples was 2.3-fold greater than that of ZnS nanoparticles, because that the porous cavity can increase the utilization ratio of excitation light and cause more absorption of excitation light, improve the luminescent properties of ZnS phosphor.