Our group has introduced preparative gel permeation chromatography (GPC) as a method to separate natively-capped nanocrystals from small molecules including weakly-bound ligands. The GPC method provides highly purified nanocrystals with low and consistent ligand populations that we can use to study the effects of impurities on ligand exchange and shell growth, and as a well-defined initial state from which to examine the thermodynamics of ligand binding and interactions. We have also investigated the formation of CdS shells on CdSe nanocrystals under alternating layer addition conditions to evaluate the proposed selective ionic layer adhesion and reaction (SILAR) mechanism of shell growth. Through experiments such as these we aim to identify metrics for QDs and anisotropic nanocrystals and nanowires that enable subsequent reaction chemistry and physical properties to be predicted with confidence.

Sequential chemistry of semiconductor nanocrystals through purification, stoichiometry, and measurement

247th National Meeting (2014)

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