Facile synthesis of Ni-doped ZnS-CdS composite and their magnetic and photoluminescence properties

ZnS and CdS are promising semiconductors due to their excellent optical and catalyst properties. But, its low photon efficiency and high photo corrosion limit their practical applications. Heterojunctions construction and designing advanced structures with a suitable transition metal ions doping are active methods to improve the properties of semiconductors. In this work, Ni-doped ZnS-CdS hybrid composite was successfully synthesized using a simple chemical precipitation technique. X-ray diffraction, FT-IR spectroscopy, TEM, UV-Vis spectroscopy, PL, and VSM measurements were used to investigate the structural, morphological, optical, and magnetic properties of Ni-doped ZnS-CdS hybrid composite. The XRD analysis confirmed the incorporation of Ni2+ ions into the host lattice and the calculated average crystallite size is similar to 15.5 nm. The optical and EPR analysis confirmed that the dopant (Ni2+) ions occupy octahedral sites in the host lattice. From the CIE chromaticity diagram, it is revealed that the hybrid composite displayed green light emission. The presence of Zn-S and Cd-S vibrational bands is confirmed from the FT-IR spectrum. Room temperature ferromagnetism was observed in the Ni-doped ZnS-CdS hybrid composite.