Effect of Cores on Photoluminescence of Hybrid SiO2-Coated CdTe Quantum Dots

Compared with conventional semiconductor quantum dots, hybrid SiO2 coated CdTe QDs exhibited high stability, long fluorescent lifetime, high photoluminescence quantum yields, and well biocompatibility. In this paper, CdTe QDs with tunable PL from green to red emitting were prepared by an aqueous synthesis. A sol–gel process resulted in CdTe QDs coated with a hybrid SiO2 shell contained CdS-like clusters to obtain red-shifted PL spectra, increased PL efficiency and high stability. The clusters were formed by the reaction of Cd2+ and S2− ions generated via the decomposition of thioglycolic acid. The clusters around CdTe cores created a core–shell structure which is very similar with traditional semiconductor core–shell QDs. After being coated with a hybrid SiO2 shell, the PL of green-emitting naked CdTe QDs was red-shifted largely (~30 nm) while the PL of yellowemitting CdTe QDs revealed a small red-shifted (~20 nm). Furthermore, The PL of red-emitting naked CdTe QDs was red-shifted much small (less than 10 nm). This phenomenon is ascribed to the change of band gap of CdTe cores with sizes. The red-shift of PL spectra is attributed to the CdS-like clusters around the core rather than the thickness of the hybrid SiO2 shell.