Two-Step Fabrication of Nano-PbS on Peacock Feathers Inspired by a Hair-Dyeing Method Used in Ancient Egypt
A rapid method towards nanoPbS on peacock feathers was reported and this is inspired by a hair-dyeing technology used in Ancient Egypt thousands of years ago. Original peacock feather was sulfhydrylated by 2, 3-dimercaptosuccinic acid (DMSA) dissolved in alcohol to enhance reaction sites, and then was immersed in the saturated PbO solution in calcium hydroxide and got the PbS peacock feather. The whole process is only two steps and could be completed within two hours. The morphology and structures of the sample were measured by the X-ray diffraction (XRD), Scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and transmission electron microscope (TEM) and results showed that the structure of original peacock feather was well duplicated. Compared with previous works, this method is faster and more efficient and thus has potentials to fabricate other functional sulfides.