Abstract
Judicious selection of the amount of surfactant during synthesis enables a drastic increase in the photoluminescence efficiency of aqueous CdTe nanocrystals (NCs) stabilized by thioglycolic acid (TGA). Elemental determination of the NCs was undertaken to identify the origin of this effect. The molar ratio of (Te + S) to Cd approached unity when the optimum amount of TGA was used during synthesis, whereas the number of S atoms originating from TGA molecules in one NC (2.6 nm of diameter) remained unchanged at 90 ± 3. This indicates that the core lattice composition at the beginning of synthesis, rather than the surface conditions, affects the photoluminescence efficiency of the NCs even after prolonged refluxing.
Highlights
Vast numbers of papers are currently being published in the field of emitting semiconductor nanocrystals (NCs)
The aqueous method had two drawbacks, lower emission efficiency and a wider photoluminescence (PL) spectrum compared to the organic method, along with their several advantages such as better reproducibility and easier preparation procedure
It has been demonstrated that the emission efficiency of CdTe NCs can be enhanced by roughly one order of magnitude accompanied by the reduction of the PL spectral width by half [3]
Summary
Vast numbers of papers are currently being published in the field of emitting semiconductor nanocrystals (NCs). 66b, 01062 Dresden, Germany synthesis of these NCs is either by an aqueous or organic solution method. It was reported that the number of surfactant molecules attached to the surface of the NCs might be optimized when a relatively small amount of surfactant is used during the synthesis [3].
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