Project description
A novel chemical synthesis route to cadmium-free quantum dots
Colloidal semiconductor nanocrystals, or quantum dots, have attracted a great deal of attention from academia and industry owing to their unique optical and electronic properties. Typical dots are made of binary compounds that often contain cadmium, which is toxic and therefore hinders their use in consumer products. Recent advances in the synthesis of indium phosphide quantum dots render them a promising cadmium-free alternative. A critical parameter for their use in light-emitting devices is achieving a narrow fluorescence emission spectrum. Funded by the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions programme, the InPlane project is developing a novel chemical synthesis method of two-dimensional indium phosphide nanoplatelets. Focus will be placed on the recrystallisation of small indium phosphide nanocrystals and cation exchange.
Objective
Colloidal semiconductor nanocrystals (NCs) attract immense interest both from the scientific community and industrial companies/startups, due to their unique optical properties that are tunable in a wide range through changing their composition, size, shape, etc. However, currently, the implementation of the well-developed NCs in consumer products is hindered by the presence of toxic cadmium and the development of “Cd-free” NCs, investigation and optimization of their properties are important challenges in the field. Among the most promising “Cd-free” alternatives are indium phosphide (InP) NCs but despite all advances in their synthesis, there is still a need to achieve narrow fluorescence of such NCs – a parameter crucial for their applications in light-emitting devices (e.g. in displays).
In this project, we propose a novel approach to solve this issue, which consists in the chemical synthesis of two-dimensional InP nanoplatelets (NPls). To achieve this, two strategies will be examined: recrystallization of small InP NCs and cation exchange. The research of the first strategy will involve studying precursor reactivity, searching for a suitable promoter of anisotropic growth, and on the optimization of the reaction conditions. The cation exchange strategy will focus on the investigation of the incorporation of indium ions into the pre-synthesized Cu3-xP NPls to achieve complete cation exchange. In the next stages, further work will concentrate on the optimization of obtained NPls for practical applications through achieving spectral tunability by alloying and through maximizing photoluminescence quantum yield and stability by covering InP NPls with a wide bandgap shell. Additionally, to demonstrate the application potential of the prepared NPls and related heterostructures the extensive characterization of chemical and physical properties of InP NPls will be conducted with the specific focus on the properties relevant for light-emitting applications.
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Programme(s)
Funding Scheme
MSCA-IF - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowships (IF)Coordinator
01069 Dresden
Germany