Issue 10, 2010

Fundamental aspects of nucleation and growth in the solution-phase synthesis of germaniumnanocrystals

Abstract

Colloidal Ge nanocrystals (NCs) were synthesized via the solution phase reduction of germanium(II) iodide. We report a systematic investigation of the nanocrystal nucleation and growth as a function of synthesis conditions including the nature of coordinating solvents, surface bound ligands, synthesis duration and temperature. NC synthesis in reaction environments with weakly bound phosphine surface ligand led to the coalescence of nascent particles leading to ensembles with broad lognormal particle diameter distributions. Synthesis in the presence of amine or alkene ligands mitigated particle coalescence. High-resolution transmission electron micrographs revealed that NCs grown in the presence of weak ligands had a high crystal defect density whereas NCs grown in amine solutions were predominantly defect-free. We applied infrared spectroscopy to study the NC surface chemistry and showed that alkene ligands project the NCs from surface oxidation. Photoluminescence spectroscopy measurements showed that alkene ligands passivate surface traps, as indicated by infrared fluorescence, conversely oxidized phosphine and amine passivated NCs did not fluoresce.

Graphical abstract: Fundamental aspects of nucleation and growth in the solution-phase synthesis of germanium nanocrystals

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
09 Feb 2010
Accepted
17 Apr 2010
First published
10 May 2010

CrystEngComm, 2010,12, 2903-2909

Fundamental aspects of nucleation and growth in the solution-phase synthesis of germanium nanocrystals

S. C. Codoluto, W. J. Baumgardner and T. Hanrath, CrystEngComm, 2010, 12, 2903 DOI: 10.1039/C002820G

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