ABSTRACT
Controlling the synthesis of narrow band gap semiconductor nanocrystals (NCs) with a high-quality surface is of prime importance for scientific and technological interests. This Letter presents facile solution-phase syntheses of SnTe NCs and their corresponding core/shell heterostructures. Here, we synthesized monodisperse and highly crystalline SnTe NCs by employing an inexpensive, nontoxic precursor, SnCl2, the reactivity of which was enhanced by adding a reducing agent, 1,2-hexadecanediol. Moreover, we developed a synthesis procedure for the formation of SnTe-based core/shell NCs by combining the cation exchange and the Kirkendall effect. The cation exchange of Sn(2+) by Cd(2+) at the surface allowed primarily the formation of SnTe/CdTe core/shell NCs. Further continuation of the reaction promoted an intensive diffusion of the Cd(2+) ions, which via the Kirkendall effect led to the formation of the inverted CdTe/SnTe core/shell NCs.
ABSTRACT
A recently demonstrated approach to control the size of colloidal nanoparticles, "size control by rate control", which was validated on the examples of colloidal CdSe- and CdS-quantum dot (CQD) synthesis, appears to be a general strategy for designing technically applicable CQD-syntheses. The "size control by rate control" concept allows full-yield syntheses of ensembles of CQDs with different sizes by tuning the solute formation rate. In this work, we extended this strategy to dialkylphosphine enhanced hot-injection synthesis of PbSe-CQDs. Furthermore, we provide new insight into the reaction mechanism of dialkylphosphine enhancement in TOPSe based CQD-syntheses.
ABSTRACT
We show that adjusting the reaction rate in a hot injection synthesis is a viable strategy to tune the diameter of colloidal nanocrystals at the end of the size distribution focusing, i.e., the postfocused diameter. The approach is introduced by synthesis simulations, which describe nucleation and growth of colloidal nanocrystals from a solute or monomer that is formed in situ out of the injected precursors. These simulations indicate that the postfocused diameter is reached at almost full yield and that it can be adjusted by the rate of monomer formation. We implement this size-tuning strategy using a particular CdSe quantum dot synthesis that shows excellent agreement with the model synthesis. After demonstrating that the reaction rate depends in first order on the Cd and Se precursor concentration, the proposed strategy of size control is explored by varying the precursor concentration. This enables the synthesis of colloidal nanocrystals with a predefined size at almost full yield and sharp size distributions. In addition, we demonstrate that the same tuning strategy applies to the synthesis of CdS quantum dots. This result is highly relevant especially in the context of reaction upscaling and automation. Moreover, the results obtained challenge the traditional interpretation of the hot injection synthesis, in particular the link between hot injection, burst nucleation, and sharp size distributions.
