LOCKED IN: KEEPING LIGANDS ON A QUANTUM DOT SURFACE

摘要

Keeping colloidal quantum dots (QD) stable in a solvent is no small feat, as the outer organic surface ligands are in equilibrium with free ligands in solution; perturbation of this equilibrium can lead to QD instability, degradation, coalescence, and inferior electronic and optical properties. Now researchers led by Raffaella Buonsanti show that these outer ligands can be permanently locked onto a QD surface using a very thin alumina layer. This ligand locking strategy can improve many applications of QP including single particle studies, QD ink processing, and use in display technology and solar cells, as well as in biomedical applications.