Colloidal synthesis of octahedral shaped PbSe nanocrystals from lead oleate and Se: Temperature effect

Abstract

Formation of octahedral shaped PbSe quantum dots at higher synthesis temperature is being reported in this paper. The synthesis includes the reaction between lead oleate and trioctylphosphine selenide under inert gas conditions to produce PbSe. TEM, SEM, XRD and EDS were used to characterize the samples. The SEM exhibited the formation of spherical shaped nanocrystals at temperature below 140°C and octahedral shaped nanoparticles at higher temperatures. Moreover, the TEM also showed the well resolved (111) lattice fringes proving that the nanocrystals were crystalline in nature. Synthesis of highly pure PbSe nanocrystals was another interesting aspect of this research.