Nearly all traditional colloidal quantum dot (QD) syntheses harness a shortlist of surfactant ligand species (oleic acid, oleyl amine, alkyl phosphonic acids, etc.) to solubilize the particle and protect from agglomeration in solution. While ideal for this purpose, these ligand species are chemically uninteresting and are often post-synthetically substituted for other surface-bound molecules that serve a variety of purposes. Recently, our lab has focused on designing new QD preparation methods that utilize novel ligand molecules containing purpose-driven chemical groups for usage in a variety of applications. Here, we present findings concerning on-particle ligand modification (OPLM) of native diol groups to alter particle hydrophobicity and ligand length, preferential substrate binding with native terminal alkyne ligands, and some preliminary findings on Diels-Alder particle crosslinking mechanisms in solution for photoluminescence tuning. While challenging to develop, our techniques aim to simplify and optimize the usage of QD materials in flexible electronics, printable fluorescent and sensing devices, among other applications in which crystal surface chemistry (outside of bulky hydrophobic ligands) is implicitly crucial to performance. In all of these examples, we wish to emphasize the lessons we have learned in designing QD syntheses that incorporate chemically sensitive and/or slightly polar ligand moieties.

On-particle ligand modification: Lessons learned in the pursuit of new quantum Dot syntheses that utilize functionalized ligands

ACS Spring 2022

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.