The influence of iodide addition on the composition, morphology, crystal structure, and semiconductor and photoelectric properties of PbS films.

The concentration conditions for the deposition of lead sulfide and hydroxide in a citrate-ammonia reaction system by varying the pH value and the concentration of the ammonium iodide dopant are calculated. Kinetic studies of the process of conversion of lead salt into sulfide by varying the concentration of NH4I in solution within the range of 0.0-0.4 M show an inhibitory effect of ammonium iodide, which reduces the constant of the effective rate of the conversion process by almost 20 times. Thin films of lead sulfide with a thickness of 100 to 650 nm are synthesized by chemical bath deposition in the presence of NH4I on sitall and glass substrates. The introduction of NH4I into the reaction mixture decreases the size of crystallites forming the films and increases the fraction of nanoparticles to 17%. The films deposited during 90 min contain 48.5-51.7 at% of lead, 47.4-47.9 at% of sulfur, and up to 3.7 at% of iodine; the content of iodine can reach 17.1 at% in the initial period of deposition (after 20 min of deposition). The calculated fractal dimension of the surface of the iodine-doped PbS(I) films (Dc = 2.04-2.14) corresponds to the process of film formation by the cluster-cluster aggregation mechanism with small sticking probability (reaction-limited cluster aggregation model (RLCA)). According to the X-ray diffraction data, the PbS(I) films have a cubic structure of the NaCl (B1) type; an increase in the concentration of NH4I in the solution results in an increase in the lattice parameter from 0.59315(1) to 0.59442(3) nm, which is probably due to the substitution of sulfur ions for iodine ones. According to optical studies, the introduction of ammonium iodide into the reaction mixture leads to a shift of the absorption edge to the high-energy region and the appearance of an additional (impurity) band. The PbS films deposited in the presence of NH4I do not require additional photosensitization operations and show a relatively high volt-watt sensitivity to IR radiation at anomalously small values of the time constant.

Sorption of copper(II) ions from aqueous solution by activated carbon BAU-A and coal sorbent MIU-S. The relationship between the structure of sorbents and their sorption properties.

The sorption of copper(II) ions in a wide range of pH by two Russian carbon sorbents BAU-A and MIU-S was studied. Sorbents varied in structure, surface area, pH of the point of zero charge (pHZPC), and graphitization degree. The sorption studies were conducted in batch mode. The removal of copper(II) ions from a solution at pH 4, 5, 6, and 6.7 is described by the classical adsorption isotherms of Freundlich, Langmuir, and Dubinin-Radushkevich. With an increase in pH from 4 to 6.7, the sorption capacity of sorbents increases, from 0.910 to 7.163 mg/g for BAU-A, and from 0.265 to 3.307 mg/g for MIU-S. The relationship between the degree of crystallinity and the sorption properties of sorbents has been established.

Synthesis, spectroscopic and luminescence properties of Ga-doped γ-Al2O3.

Gallium-doped aluminum oxide (Al1-xGax)2O3 with γ-Al2O3 (spinel) structure has been synthesized by the precursor method using the formate Al1-xGax(OH)(HCOO)2 as a precursor. The examination of Al1-xGax(OH)(HCOO)2 (x = 0.0, 0.1, 0.2, 0.3, 0.4) was carried out by X-ray powder diffraction, Infrared, Raman spectroscopy and differential-thermal methods. The solid solutions γ-(Al1-xGax)2O3 with х≤0.2 have been synthesized by thermolysis of precursors in helium atmosphere at 700 °C; they exhibit white-blue emission under UV excitation, whose intensity lowers with increasing dopant concentration. As an independent method, the DFT calculations confirmed thermodynamically the stability field of γ-(Al1-xGax)2O3 solid solutions and the NMR data on relative abundance of Al and Ga within the tetrahedral and octahedral sites in the metal sublattice. Furthermore, the structural and thermodynamic properties of carbon-containing impurities within these compounds were suggested theoretically as possible models of luminescence emission centers. The experimentally observed Ga-dependent quenching of luminescence was explained using the competition between C2p and Ga4p states within the band gap of γ-Al2O3.