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Research Article

Precursor compound enabled formation of aqueous-phase CdSe magic-size clusters at room temperature

Min Zhao1, Qingyuan Chen2, Yongcheng Zhu2, Yuehui Liu3, Chunchun Zhang4, Gang Jiang2, Meng Zhang2( ), Kui Yu2,3,5( )
School of Chemical Engineering, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610065, China
Institute of Atomic and Molecular Physics, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610065, China
Engineering Research Center in Biomaterials, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610065, China
Analytical & Testing Center, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610065, China
State Key Laboratory of Polymer Materials Engineering, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610065, China
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Graphical Abstract

Abstract

The formation pathway of aqueous-phase colloidal semiconductor magic-size clusters (MSCs) remains unrevealed. In the present work, we demonstrate, for the first time, a precursor compound (PC)-enabled formation pathway of aqueous-phase CdSe MSCs exhibiting a sharp absorption peaking at about 420 nm (MSC-420). The CdSe MSC-420 is synthesized with CdCl2 and selenourea as the respective Cd and Se sources, and with 3-mercaptopropionic acid or L-cysteine as a ligand. Absorption featureless CdSe PCs form first in the aqueous reaction batches, which transform to MSC-420 in the presence of primary amines. The coordination between primary amine and Cd2+ on PCs may be responsible to the PC-to-MSC transformation. Upon increasing the reactant concentrations or decreasing the CdCl2-ligand feed molar ratios, the Cd precursor self-assembles into large aggregates, which may encapsulate the resulting CdSe PCs and inhibit their transformation to MSC-420. The present study sheds essential light on the syntheses and formation mechanisms of nanocrystals.

Keywords

aqueous magic-size clusterprecursor compoundformation pathwayself-assemblyprecursor configuration

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Nano Research
Volume 15 Issue 3,
March 2022
Pages 2634-2642
DOI: 10.1007/s12274-021-3858-1
Cite this article:
Zhao M, Chen Q, Zhu Y, et al. Precursor compound enabled formation of aqueous-phase CdSe magic-size clusters at room temperature. Nano Research, 2022, 15(3): 2634-2642. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-021-3858-1
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Received: 05 July 2021
Revised: 25 August 2021
Accepted: 02 September 2021
Published: 18 September 2021
© Tsinghua University Press and Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2021
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