Water-Soluble CdTe/CdS Core/Shell Semiconductor Nanocrystals: How Their Optical Properties Depend on the Synthesis Methods

Abstract

We conducted a comparative synthesis of water-soluble CdTe/CdS colloidal nanocrystalline semiconductors of the core/shell type. We prepared the CdS shell using two different methods: a one-pot approach and successive ionic layer adsorption and reaction (SILAR); in both cases, we used 3-mercaptopropionic acid (MPA) as the surface ligand. In the one-pot approach, thiourea was added over the freshly formed CdTe dispersion, and served as the sulfur source. We achieved thicker CdS layers by altering the Cd:S stoichiometric ratio (1:1, 1:2, 1:4, and 1:8). The Cd:S ratios 1:1 and 1:2 furnished the best optical properties; these ratios also made the formation of surface defects less likely. For CdTe/CdS obtained using SILAR, we coated the surface of three differently sized CdTe cores (2.17, 3.10, and 3.45 nm) with one to five CdS layers using successive injections of the Cd2+ and S2– ions. The results showed that the core size influenced the optical properties of the materials. The deposition of three to five layers over the surface of smaller CdTe colloidal nanocrystals generated strain effects on the core/shell structure.

Keywords

• core/shell
• quantum dots
• photoluminescence
• strain effect
• CdTe/CdS