Microwave Initiated Nucleation for the Synthesis of High Quality Nanocrystalline Quantum Dot Materials

摘要

The colloidal synthesis of quantum dots occurs through either a kinetically dominated process where nucleation proceeds rapidly followed by growth via coalescence of nucleates to form larger nanoparticles, or through a thermodynamically dominated process in which nucleation occurs at high temperatures followed by epitaxial growth of the nanoparticle at lower temperatures via step-wise addition of precursors to the surface of the nucleates. While either process may be utilized for the formation of binary quantum dots, problems arise when forming quantum dots of multinary compositions due to differences in thermodynamic or kinetic processes, or the rate of nucleation. We address this issue by using microwave irradiation to manipulate the reaction kinetics of the precursors in order to produce homogeneous materials.