Lead selenide nanocrystals decorated with fullerenes by dithiocarbamate linkage and their photoelectric response

We report on the chemical linkage of fullerenes to lead selenide (PbSe) nanocrystals by exchanging oleic acid ligands on PbSe nanocrystals with C60-bound dithiocarbamate ligands. To improve the solubility of C60-PbSe nanocrystals, a small-molecular-weight dithiocarbamate was used as a co-ligand in the ligand exchange reaction. The as-synthesized C60-PbSe nanoconjugates were characterized by 1H NMR, UV–vis and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). Photoelectrochemistry (PEC) of the C60-PbSe nanoconjugate revealed a reversed polarity of the photocurrent compared to those of C60 and PbSe nanoparticles separately, suggesting that C60 may serve as p-dopants to PbSe nanocrystals through the surface transfer doping process.