Amphiphilic ABC triblock copolymer-assisted synthesis of core/shell structured CdTe nanowires

A new type of amphiphilic ABC triblock copolymer, poly(acrylic acid)(33)-poly(styrene)(47)-poly(ethylene oxide)(113) (PAA(33)-PS(47)-PEO(113)), was designed to assist the synthesis of core/shell structured CdTe nanowires via a one-step synthetic route. The PAA block was adopted to capture cadmium ions as the precursor of CdTe. Due to the bivalent coordination of Cd(2+), the copolymer in dioxane/H(2)O formed micelles with Cd(2+)-polychelate cores. Then CdTe nanocrystals were obtained within the micelles after introduction of NaHTe into the micelle solution. Transmission electron microscopy experiments revealed that the CdTe nanocrystals obtained simultaneously formed "pearl-necklace" aggregates in solution possibly driven by dipole interactions between neighboring particles, and then single crystalline CdTe nanowires upon reflux. Accompanying this morphology change, a phase transition from cubic zinc blende to wurtzite structure was observed by selected-area electron diffraction. The aggregation of the PS block in dioxane with a certain amount of H(2)O enabled the PS blocks to form a densely packed shell on the CdTe nanowires whose typical size is 700-800 nm in length and 15-20 nm in width. The third block of PEO was employed to render the finally formed CdTe nanowires dispersibility.