Silicon nanocrystals, which are considered as greener alternatives to traditional nanocrystals like CdSe and PbS, offer the benefits of being earth abundant, inexpensive, purportedly less toxic and compatible with silicon electronics. Compared to bulk Si crystal, nanoscale silicon crystals have new properties and functionalities and are expected to have new and exciting applications in microelectronic, photonic, photovoltaic and nanobiotech industries. A significant rise can be seen in the number of publications on silicon nanocrystals recent years, which witnesses a rising interest in this material. As presented in our research here, the newly designed and synthesized silicon nanocrystals with redox active capping ligands exhibit intriguing electronic properties. This type of materials addresses some fundamental problems such as in what degree the surface determines the property of the nanocrystal as a whole. Moreover, in terms of application, they can also be promising candidates for microelectronic devices. This presentation will focus on the synthesis of the novel silicon nanocrystals capped with ferrocene, fullerene and tetrathiafulvalene based ligands and the characterization of the electronic and optical properties. Several new structures of silicon nanocrystals will be discussed. The potentially interesting redox tunability that these materials offer will also be presented. Initial data have shown that the electronic and optical properties can be affected by the oxidation state of the redox center within the ligands, which can be tuned by potential control.

Silicon nanocrystals with redox active capping ligands

248th National Meeting (2014)

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