A facile low-temperature synthesis of nanosheets assembled PbS microflowers and their structural, morphological, optical, photoluminescence, dielectric and electrical studies

In current article we report a simple one pot synthesis of lead sulfide (PbS) microflowers (MFs) assembled with nanosheets at low temperature by chemical co-precipitation route. SEM study confirm the low dimension NFs morphology of final product. Furthermore, MFs were subjected to structural, vibrational, diffused reflectance, photoluminescence and impedance spectroscopy measurements. Structural and vibrational studies proved the development of single phase highly crystalline PbS MFs. The respective average crystallite size, lattice strain and dislocation density was ∼9.950 nm, 0.011 (1/nm²) and 0.003. Direct and indirect energy gaps were determined through Kubelka-Munk method ∼0.71 eV and 0.56 eV, respectively, which are superior than bulk (i.e. 0.41 eV). There is clear enrichment in energy gap of MFs which signify the existence of confinement effect. PL emission shows an intense violet emission bands at ∼386 nm and 407 nm. Dielectric constant, loss and ac electrical conductivity were studied at higher frequencies at different bias voltages and discussed. Obtained results presents a new insight on PbS for optoelectronic device applications. (paper)