Water-soluble CdSe and CdSe/CdS nanocrystals: A greener synthetic route

We report a new green synthetic route of CdSe and core–shell CdSe/CdS nanoparticles (NPs) in aqueous solutions. This route is performed under water-bath temperature, using Se powder as a selenium source to prepare CdSe NPs, and H2S generated by the reaction of Na2SH2SO4 as a sulfur source to synthesize core–shell CdSe/CdS NPs at 25–35 °C. The synthesis time of every step is only 20 min. After illumination with ambient natural light, photoluminescence (PL) intensities of CdSe NPs enhanced up to 100 times. The core–shell CdSe/CdS NPs have stronger photoactive luminescence with quantum yields over 20%. The obtained CdSe NPs exhibit a favorable narrow PL band (FWHM: 50–37 nm) with increasing molar ratio of Cd/Se from 4:1 to 10:1 at pH 9.1 in the crude solution, whereas PL band of corresponding CdSe/CdS NPs is slightly narrower. The emission maxima of nanocrystals can be tuned in a wider range from 492 to 592 nm in water by changing synthesis temperature of CdSe core than those reported previously. The resulting new route is of particular interest as it uses readily-available reagents and simple equipment to synthesize high-quality water-soluble CdSe and CdSe/CdS nanocrystals.

Graphical abstractAbsorption and photoluminescence spectra of CdSe (—) and CdSe/CdS (- - -) nanoparticle solutions. The strong luminescence of CdSe/CdS NPs can been observed with naked eye under normal indoor light without UV irradiation, which suggest that H2S generated by the reaction of Na2SH2SO4 can be used as a sulfur source to prepare CdSe/CdS NPs.Figure optionsDownload full-size imageDownload as PowerPoint slide