Understanding the fundamental properties of a material requires a precise knowledge of structure; however, structural determination of nanomaterials remains a major challenge due to the combination of heterogeneity and long-range disorder in most samples. By measuring the diffuse scattering of powder samples and performing pair-distribution function (PDF) analysis, we have gleaned key insights allowing us to correlate structural changes with changes in composition and electronic properties of colloidal cadmium selenide (CdSe) nanocrystals. Drawing upon a combination of PDF and other spectroscopic techniques, we have determined the formulas and structures of small CdSe clusters, investigated the reconstruction of nanocrystal surfaces as a function of ligand coverage, and characterized the relationship between CdSe grain growth and charge mobility, among other studies. These results represent a convincing demonstration of PDF’s value and versatility for understanding structure-property relationships in nanocrystal materials.

Probing structure-property relationships at the nanoscale: Combined X-ray and spectroscopic methods for the study of colloidal cadmium selenide

249th National Meeting (2015)

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