Synthesis and optical properties of CdSe nanocrystals and CdSe/ZnS core/shell nanostructures in non-coordinating solvents

Abstract

Abstract We have performed a conventional and non-coordinated-based method for synthesis of CdSe and CdSe/ZnS core/shell quantum dots in this work. This was the first time a CdSe/ZnS core/shell structure was successfully synthesized in a non-coordinating solvent without trioctylphosphine oxide (TOPO). The obtained CdSe nanocrystals were characterized by using UV-Vis absorption spectroscopy, photoluminescent (PL) spectroscopy and transmission electron microscopy (TEM), which confirmed that a series of CdSe particles with a diameter of 1.9–3.5 nm, corresponding to the first peak of absorption spectra in the 450–570 nm range, was successfully achieved. The CdSe/ZnS core/shell structures were then fabricated by coating the previously synthesized CdSe core with various ZnS layers. These CdSe/ZnS semiconductor quantum dots exhibited very high photoluminescence in comparison to that of the original CdSe cores. The narrow width of the CdSe/ZnS quantum dots indicated that the as-produced quantum dots have uniform size distribution, desirable dispersibility and excellent fluorescent properties. These are the requirements for several potential utilizations, such as cellular imaging, biomedical sensing, and solar cell and other photovoltaic applications.