<p>Although
solvent-ligand interactions play a major role in nanocrystal synthesis, dispersion
formulation and assembly, there is currently no direct method to study this.
Here we examine the broadening of <sup>1</sup>H NMR resonances associated with
bound ligands, and turn this poorly understood descriptor into a tool to assess
solvent-ligand interactions. We show that the line broadening has both a homogeneous
and a heterogeneous component. The former is nanocrystal-size dependent and the
latter results from solvent-ligand interactions. Our model is supported by
experimental and theoretical evidence that correlates broad NMR lines with poor
ligand solvation. This correlation is found across a wide range of solvents,
extending from water to hexane, for both hydrophobic and hydrophilic ligand
types, and for a multitude of oxide, sulfide and selenide nanocrystals. Our findings
thus put forward NMR line shape analysis as an indispensable tool to form,
investigate and manipulate nanocolloids.</p>
DBU-Catalyzed One-Pot Synthesis of Nearly Any Metal Salt of Fatty Acid (M-FA): A Library of Metal Precursors to Semiconductor Nanocrystal Synthesis
