Strategies for the Scalable Synthesis of Quantum Dots and Related Nanodimensional Materials

Strategies for the Scalable Synthesis of Quantum Dots and Related Nanodimensional Materials 

This chapter will address issues concerned with the synthesis of quantum dots in quantity. Many issues remain ill-defined in this area including the simple problem of defining what will form a proper specification for nanodimensional materials such as quantum dots. A typical material may involve two types of solid-state compound and an apparently ever increasingly complex orgamc coat used to enhance the stability of the material and the solvents in which it can be dispersed/ processed. Again analogies with conventional semiconducting materials can be 

The Chemi ry of Nanomaterials Synthesis, Properties and Applications, Volume 1. Edited by C. N. R. Rao, A. Muller, A. K. Cheetham 

Copyright 2004 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH Co. KGaA, Weinheim ISBN 3-527-30686-2 

For the purposes of this article we will limit our discussion to particles defined by a minimum of two dimensions less than 100 nm but usually with 2-dimenions less than 10 nm. Current interest in these materials can principally be traced to work by Luis Brus in the mid-1980s in which he pointed out that the band gap of a simple direct band gap semiconductor such as CdS should be dependent on its size once its dimensions were smaller than the Bohr radius [10]. Experimental work confirmed this suggestion. Initial samples were prepared by low temperature 

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