We demonstrated previously suppressed blinking, long-term photostability, and inefficient nonradiative Auger recombination in thick-shell CdSe/CdS core/shell nanocrystal quantum dots (NQDs), so-called �giant� NQDs (g-NQDs).1,2,3 A contributing factor to these unusual properties may be the chemical nature of the core/shell interface.3,4 Here, we report our attempts to intentionally engineer the interface of CdSe/CdS NQDs by (i) high-temperature annealing of standard core/shell NQDs, (ii) alloying of the core (CdSexS1-x/CdS), and (iii) alloying of the shell [CdSe/(CdSexS1-x)n, where Se and S content are either held constant or progressively varied toward increasing S, n = 2-9]. The composition and morphology of these alloyed NQDs were verified using EDX spectroscopy, ICP-OES, HR-TEM and EELS. The manipulation of interfacial composition by thermal and chemical methods leads to control over emission wavelength, single and multi-excitonic decay lifetimes and blinking, and sheds light on the role of the core/shell interface on the unique optical properties of g-NQDs. 1. Chen, Y. et. al., J. Am. Chem. Soc., 2008 , 130, 5026.2. Vela, J. et. al., J. Biophotonics., 2010 , 3, 706.3. Garcia-Santamaria, F. et. al., Nano Lett, 2009 , 9, 3482.4. Brovelli, S. et. al., Nature Communications, 2011 , 2 , 280.

Interface engineering in CdSe/CdS core/shell nanocrystal quantum dots toward controlled photophysical properties

243rd National Meeting (2012)

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