Tailoring of structural and photoluminescence emissions by Mn and Cu co-doping in 2D nanostructures of ZnS for visualization of latent fingerprints and generation of white light

Abstract

There is a recent demand in development of luminescent materials for visualizations of latent fingerprints (LFPs) for achieving enhanced security. Also recently there has been a new research trend on developments of 2D materials from non-layered semiconductors with strong luminescence properties in the visible region. The conventional growth process of luminescent materials limits its capacity of tuning the structure and light emission efficiency. However, multi-atom doping provides an additional degree of freedom to tune the basic morphologies and optical properties of luminescent semiconductors by controlling the defect levels. Here, by a simple chemical technique multi-atom (Cu and Mn) doped rarely reported 2D nanosheets of zinc sulphide (ZnS) have been grown. Thus a stable high ?uorescence efficiency of ~62% in the visible region has been realized for visualization of LFPs. Further near-white light emission has been demonstrated by coating the synthesized materials with a suitable doping concentration on a commercially available UV-LED chip. The proposed technique may be utilized further to build-up other 2D nanostructured materials for multifunctional applications in solid state lighting, LFPs and in forensic sciences.