Growth of single-crystal ZnS nanobelts through a low-temperature thermochemistry route and their optical properties

ZnS nanobelts have been synthesized on a large scale using a simple thermochemistry method where the sources were Zn and ammonium polysulphide. The nanobelts had a uniform single-crystal hexagonal wurtzite structure with width ranging from 50 to 150 nm and length up to several tens of micrometers. The growth of ZnS nanobelts is controlled by vapor-solid (VS) crystal growth mechanism. Photoluminescence (PL) measurement shows that the nanobelts have a strong blue emission at about 450 nm and a green light emission at 530 nm.