Room-temperature formation of CdS magic-size clusters in aqueous solutions assisted by primary amines.
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 32826911.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1038/s41467-020-18014-6 and PMC identifier 7442802.
- Licence recorded as CC BY.
- The licence permits redistribution, so the abstract is shown in full and the full text is available from the publisher.
Abstract
Aqueous-phase approaches to semiconductor CdS magic-size clusters (MSCs) and the formation pathway have remained relatively unexplored. Here, we report the demonstration of an aqueous-phase, room-temperature approach to CdS MSCs, together with an exploration of their evolution pathway. The resulting CdS MSCs display a sharp optical absorption peak at about 360 nm and are labeled MSC-360. With CdCl<sub>2</sub> and thiourea as the respective Cd and S sources, and 3-mercarpotopropionic acid as the ligand, CdS MSC-360 develops in a mixture of a primary amine and water. We argue that the primary amine facilitates room-temperature decomposition of thiourea when CdCl<sub>2</sub> is present, and the formation pathway of MSCs is similar to that in organic-phase approaches. Our findings show there is a viable avenue to room-temperature aqueous-phase formation of CdS MSCs. Providing explanations of the procedure developed including the formation of large aggregates, the present study represents an important advance towards a mechanistic understanding of nanocrystal synthesis.