Abstract
Strong near-infrared (NIR) localized surface plasmon resonances (LSPRs) have been observed in spherical Cu1.94S nanocrystals and matchstick-like Cu1.94S-ZnS heterostructured nanocrystals, which have been synthesized using a simple one-pot approach without any injection and pre-synthesis of metal precursors. The LSPRs peak of the Cu1.94S nanocrystals could be tuned from 1680 nm to 1375 nm by heterogrowth of ZnS onto the Cu1.94S nanocrystals due to the increase of free carriers (holes). The LSPRs absorbance can be optimized to 1322 nm by prolonging the growth time of the heterostructured nanocrystals, which may be used as a light absorbing agent for photothermal therapy.
Highlights
Semiconductor nanocrystals have attracted much attention due to their tunable size- and shape-dependent physical and chemical properties, as well as their wide potential applications in light-emitting diodes, photovoltaic cells, biological labels and so on [1,2,3,4,5,6]
enormous efforts have been devoted to developing various methods for synthesis
Since Gao et al demonstrated that Cu1.94S nanocrystals could serve as catalysts
Summary
Semiconductor nanocrystals have attracted much attention due to their tunable size- and shape-dependent physical and chemical properties, as well as their wide potential applications in light-emitting diodes, photovoltaic cells, biological labels and so on [1,2,3,4,5,6]. In the past few years, copper-based chalcogenide nanocrystals have been extensively studied due to their potential applications from light-emitting devices to photothermal therapy [11,12,13,14,15] These nanocrystals are less toxic, economic and have unique crystal phase and electrical properties. Since Gao et al demonstrated that Cu1.94S nanocrystals could serve as catalysts for synthesis of different-shaped semiconductor heterostructured nanocrystals, various Cu1.94S-based chalcogenide semiconductor heterostructured nanocrystals have been reported using a colloidal chemical approach, such as hexagonal-prismatic Cu1.94S-ZnS, disk-shaped Cu1.94SCdS and so on [16,17,18]. The NIR plasmonic absorption peak shifts to shorter wavelength by heterogrowth of ZnS “stick” onto Cu1.94S “head”, and the LSPRs wavelength can be optimized at 1322 nm by changing the reaction time, which falls within the spectral range of the therapeutic window, indicating potential applications in photothermal therapy
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