Nanoscale Germanium is currently explored with active interest for applications in energy conversion and storage. Our research group developed a commercially viable preparation for Ge nanocrystals by a microwave assisted reaction. The  synthetic method focused on the use of multi-valent Ge iodide precursors to control the size of the NCs. Our recent efforts were focused on extending this facile method for the preparation of doped-Ge NCs. During the investigation, we identified that the dopant precursors lead to an increased size and crystallinity of the Ge NCs. This lead to a systematic study on the effects of various main group iodides on the physical attributes of the Ge NCs. Among them, SiI4, SnI4 and InI3 cause significant increase in size/crystallinity with increasing precursor quantities. In contrast, SnI2 was observed to have no effect on the Ge NC characteristics. Control experiments ruled out special microwave effects for the change in NC size and crystallinity. We hypothesize that in-situ oxidation of the Ge(II) precursor to Ge(IV) species cause the above mentioned size effects. The addition of SiI4 was also found to greatly improve the stability of the as-prepared Ge NCs in non-polar solvents. The synthesis, characterization and our attempts to understand the enhanced crystallinity and stability will be part of the presentation.

Group IV iodide mediated growth of crystalline Germanium nanocrystals

248th National Meeting (2014)

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