Significant improvement in photoluminescence of ZnSe(S) alloyed quantum dots prepared in high pH solution

Abstract

In this paper, we described a simple approach for aqueous synthesis of highly luminescent ZnSe(S) alloyed quantum dots (QDs) in the presence of 3-mercaptopropionic acid as stabilizers using zinc chloride and NaHSe as precursors. The synthesis conditions were systematically investigated. We observed that the pH value of the Zn precursor solution had significant influence on the optical properties and the structure of the as-prepared ZnSe(S) QDs. The optimal pH value and molar ratio of Zn2+ to HSe- were 12.0 and 25 : 1 respectively. Under the optimal conditions, we prepared highly photoluminescent ZnSe(S) QDs at up to 31% quantum yield (compared with Rhodamine 6G). The characterization of HRTEM and XRD showed that the ZnSe(S) QDs had good monodispersity and nice crystal structure. The fluorescence life time spectra demonstrated that ZnSe(S) QDs had a long lifetime in contrast to fluorescent dyes. Compared with the currently used organometallic approach, our method was 'green', the reaction condition was mild and the as-prepared ZnSe(S) QDs were water-soluble. More importantly, our method was low cost, and was very suitable for large-scale synthesis of highly luminescent ZnSe(S) QDs for the future applications. © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.