Synthesis of CdTe nanocrystals with mercaptosuccinic acid as stabilizer

Water soluble high quality CdTe nanocrystals (NCs) with mercaptosuccinic acid (MSA) as stabilizer are prepared by refluxing and hydrothermal synthesis in this paper. The MSA stabilizer which comprises both thioglycolic acid (TGA)-like and 3-mercaptopropionic acid (MPA)-like moieties can accelerate the whole growth process of CdTe NCs comparing with TGA-like or MPA-like stabilizer. It takes only 5 min and 2 hours to obtain green emitting (luminescence maximum at 526 nm) and red emitting (luminescence maximum at -650 nm) from CdTe NCs, respectively. In this study, the influences of the ratios of precursors and temperature on CdTe NCs synthesis were studied in detail, and the stable CdTe NCs with high photoluminescence quantum yield and narrow size distribution can be obtained under optimal condition by both routes. The luminescence quantum yield of the green-yellow emitting CdTe NCs obtained in this study can reach 75.2%.