Sol-Gel Synthesis and Characterization of Lead Monosulfide/Silicon Dioxide and Lead Monosulfide/Titanium Dioxide Nanocomposite Materials using 3-Mercaptopropionic Acid as a Bifunctional Linker

Nanotechnology is the science and engineering of preparing, characterizing, and utilizing materials on the nanometer scale. It has recently become an active area of research that has spread to almost every field of science and engineering. Nanostructures include structures and devices with dimensions in the 1--100 nm range, with fundamental properties altered as grain size decreases. Interest in nanoscience is stimulated by the fact that nanostructures have been shown to demonstrate unique properties due to the small size of their building blocks and their high surface area-to-volume ratios. IV-VI compound semiconductor nanocrystals have unique electronic properties that are highly size-dependent. Metal sulfide nanomaterials are of interest because of their size-tunable optoelectronic properties. Lead sulfide has been prepared via sol-gel processing in silica gel and TiO2 ceramic matrices. This research focuses on the synthesis and characterization of lead sulfide nanoparticles in titanium dioxide. Using lead acetate and 3-mercaptopropionic acid, we have prepared n-PbS/TiO2 nanocomposites in molar ratios of 1:20 and 1:30 within the sol-gel matrix. With the synthesis of these novel nanocomposites, we have provided a simple low cost method for generating useful nanomaterials.