Lead Sulfide Quantum Dot Synthesis

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Overview

Cadmium selenium Quantum Dots (QDs) are metal nanoparticles that fluoresce in a variety of colors determined by their size. QDs are solid state structures made of semiconductors or metals that confine a countable, small number of electrons into a small space.

Quantum dots are semiconductor nanocrystals on the scale of a few nanometers, or several hundred atoms. At this size quantum effects dominate and the electrons are quantum confined to narrow energy levels determined by the size of the particle. This means that the absorption wavelength the light can be fine-tuned and that quantum dots can be used to adjust the bandgap of the materials they are associated with. Quantum dots being explored for use in photovoltaics and in signal processing.

Significance

Quantum dots can be used increase the efficiency of solar cells by tapping different portions of the spectrum and by increasing the number of excitons that be formed per photon, resulting in higher quantum efficiency.

External Links

wikipedia:Quantum_dot

• Quantum dot blog
• Absence of Photoinduced Charge Transfer in Blends of PbSe Quantum Dots and Conjugated Polymers

   Kevin M. Noone, Nicholas C. Anderson, Noah E. Horwitz, Andrea M. Munro, Abhishek P. Kulkarni, David S. Ginger
   ACS Nano 2009 3 (6), 1345-1352 doi:10.1021/nn800871j