AQUEOUS SYNTHESIS OF HIGH QUANTUM YIELD AND MONODISPERSED THIOL-CAPPED CdxZn1-xTe QUANTUM DOTS BASED ON ELECTROCHEMICAL METHOD

A facile green approach has been developed to control the growth regime in the aqueous synthesis of CdxZn1-xTe semiconductor quantum dots (QDs) based on the electrochemistry method. The Low growth temperature and slow injection of Te precursor are used to prolong the diffusion controlled stage and thus suppress Ostwald ripening during the nanocrystal growth. The experimental results showed that a low concentration of Te precursor will definitely influence the growth procedure. The UV–visible absorption spectra, as well as transmission electron microscopy (TEM) shows the QDs a good monodispersity at any interval of the reaction procedure. The high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM) images and powder X-ray diffraction (XRD) pattern suggested that the as-prepared QDs have high crystallinity and cubic structure. The size and composition-dependent fluorescent emission wavelength of the resultant CdxZn1-xTe alloyed QDs can be tuned from 460 to 610 nm, and their photoluminescent quantum yield can reach up to 70%. Especially in the wavelength range of 510–578 nm, the overall PL QYs of the as-prepared CdxZn1-xTe QDs were above 50%. The current work suggests that electrochemical method is an attractive approach to the synthesis of high-quality II-VI ternary alloyed semiconductor QDs at large-scale with a prominent cost advantage.