A facile non-organometallic synthesis of hexadecylamine-capped ZnSe nanoparticles

The synthesis of hexadecylamine (HDA)-capped ZnSe nanoparticles via a facile method that is not mediated by organometallic compounds at low temperature is hereby reported. The synthesis involves the addition of an aqueous solution of zinc chloride to a selenide ion solution prepared by the reduction of selenium powder. By varying the reduction time, we studied the size, optical and structural properties of the as-synthesised nanoparticles. The as-synthesised ZnSe nanocrystals were characterised by UV–visible (UV–vis) absorption and PL spectroscopy, transmission electron microcopy (TEM), high-resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM) and X-ray diffraction (XRD). All the particles exhibited strong quantum confinement in their optical properties with band-edge luminescence.