Passivation of surfaces

Myung, N., Bae, Y. and Bard, A. J. (2003) Enhancement of the photoluminescence of CdSe nanocrystals dispersed in CHCI3 by oxygen passivation of surface states. Nano Lett., 3, 747—749. 

First, I shall describe the hydrogenation method I used and then consider the passivation of surface states and that of bulk dangling bonds, including grain boundaries, dislocations and point defects. 

Analytical strategies based on the activation effect caused by the analyte on the QD luminescence emission also have been proposed. In a pioneering work, the addition of Zn and Mn ions to colloidal solutions of CdS or ZnS QDs resulted in an important enhancement of the luminescence quantum yield of the nanoparticles. This effect was attributed to the passivation of surface trap sites that are either being filled or energetically moved closer to the band edges.33 46 This behavior provided the basis for the optical sensing of such metal cations with QDs. Chen and Zhu47 proposed a method for the determination of trace levels of silver ions based... 

Inhibitor A general term for any compound which will inhibit (i.e. slow down or stop) a reaction, generally by preventing propagation of the chain reaction or by passivation of surfaces, etc. The term is often used to describe any additive which will prevent a particular tendency during working operations (e.g. antioxidants, anticorrosion agents). 

In order to avoid such chemical interaction between the nanoparticles and the support, many chemical tools may be used one of them consists in the passivation of surface functionalities such as hydroxy groups, defect sites or Lewis sites via the classical tools of surface organometallic chemistry on oxide [78]. 

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