Protein-assisted synthesis of Mn-doped ZnS nanocrystals and evaluation of their capabilities for anti-counterfeiting and photodegradation of antibiotic pollutants

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发表日期：

2026年7月27日

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Pijush Das,
Hrishikesh Talukdar,
Manos P. C. Kalita

摘要

Mn-doped (2% atomic) ZnS nanocrystals have been synthesized by a protein-assisted synthesis method using bovine serum albumin (BSA) of different concentrations viz. 10, 20, 30 and 40 g L⁻¹ as a capping agent. The synthesized nanocrystals exhibit cubic crystal structure with crystallite size and lattice strain in the ranges of 4 – 6 nm and 6 × 10^–3– 20 × 10^–3, respectively. The band gaps of the nanocrystals are found to fall in the range of 3.28 – 3.58 eV. The nanocrystals exhibit photoluminescence at 580 nm that originates due to the ⁴T₁ to ⁶A₁ transition of Mn²⁺. The anti-counterfeiting capability of the luminous Mn-doped ZnS nanocrystals prepared using 40 g L⁻¹ BSA has been evaluated. Moreover, the Mn-doped ZnS nanocrystals prepared using 40 g L⁻¹ BSA have been tested for photodegradation of tetracycline, amoxicillin and ciprofloxacin antibiotic pollutants that showed promising results.

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