Issue 44, 2016

Growth kinetics of colloidal Ge nanocrystals for light harvesters

Abstract

Colloidal Ge nanocrystals (NCs) are gaining increased interest because of their potential application in low-cost optoelectronic and light harvesting devices. However, reliable control of colloidal NC synthesis is often an issue and a deeper understanding of the key-role parameters governing NC growth is highly required. Here we report an extended investigation on the growth of colloidal Ge NCs synthesized from a one-pot solution based approach. A systematic study of the effects of synthesis time, temperature and precursor concentration is elucidated in detail. X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis reveals the presence of crystalline Ge NCs with a mean size (from 5 to 35 nm) decreasing with the increase of precursor concentration. Such a trend was further confirmed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and dynamic light scattering (DLS) analysis. Moreover, the temporal NC size evolution shows a typical saturating behaviour, where characteristic time shortens at higher precursor concentration. All these growth features were satisfactorily simulated by a numerical NC growth model, evidencing that the kinetics of NC growth is controlled by a reaction-limited regime with typical activation energy of 0.7 eV. Finally, light absorption in the visible region and the successful realization of a hybrid photodetector, employing colloidal Ge NCs embedded in PEDOT:PSS polymer, showed the capability of low-cost colloidal Ge to act as light harvester. These results put new understanding for a reliable control of colloidal NC growth and the development of low-cost devices.

Graphical abstract: Growth kinetics of colloidal Ge nanocrystals for light harvesters

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
06 Feb 2016
Accepted
08 Apr 2016
First published
11 Apr 2016

RSC Adv., 2016,6, 38454-38462

Growth kinetics of colloidal Ge nanocrystals for light harvesters

S. Cosentino, G. Torrisi, R. Raciti, M. Zimbone, I. Crupi, S. Mirabella and A. Terrasi, RSC Adv., 2016, 6, 38454 DOI: 10.1039/C6RA03490J

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