A Facile Approach for Transferring PbS Colloidal Photonic Structures into Alkanol Solutions and Composite Solid Films

Abstract

AbstractVisible‐light‐responsive photonic structures have been prepared in alcohol solvents by using silica‐modified PbS colloidal nanocrystal clusters (CNCs) as building blocks. Further modification of the PbS CNCs with a coating of silica allowed the dispersion of the particles into nonaqueous solutions. Repulsive electrostatic and solvation forces contribute to the self‐assembly of the PbS@SiO2 spheres. The core–shell particles have optical properties similar to those of CNCs, and they can also be assembled into close‐packing films through simple drop‐casting on silicon substrates. Embedding droplets of such a PbS@SiO2 colloidal solution in a polymer matrix produced solid composite materials with visible‐light‐responsive optical properties with potential applications as sensors and optical switches.