General low-temperature reaction pathway from precursors to monomers before nucleation of compound semiconductor nanocrystals.

ABSTRACT: Little is known about the molecular pathway to monomers of semiconductor nanocrystals. Here we report a general reaction pathway, which is based on hydrogen-mediated ligand loss for the precursor conversion to 'monomers' at low temperature before nucleation. We apply (31)P nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy to monitor the key phosphorous-containing products that evolve from MXn+E=PPh2H+HY mixtures, where MXn, E=PPh2H, and HY are metal precursors, chalcogenide precursors, and additives, respectively. Surprisingly, the phosphorous-containing products detected can be categorized into two groups, Ph2P-Y and Ph2P(E)-Y. On the basis of our experimental and theoretical results, we propose two competing pathways to the formation of M2En monomers, each of which is accompanied by one of the two

SUBMITTER: Yu K 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4992053 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature