CdSe/Cd(x)Zn1-xS core/shell nanocrystals: core morphology and luminescent property

CdSe cores with rod (an aspect ratio of 1.8, d-5 nm) and spherical (an aspect ratio of 1, d-5 nm) morphologies were fabricated by two kinds of organic approaches through adjusting growth processes. Because of large difference of size and morphology, two kinds of cores revealed different absorption spectra. However, these cores exhibited almost same photoluminescence (PL) spectra with a red-emitting PL peak of around 625 nm. This is ascribed that they have a similar size in diameter. A graded Cd(x)Zn1-xS shell of larger band gap was grown around CdSe rods and spheres using oleic acid as a capping agent. Based on the growth kinetics of CdS and ZnS, interfacial segregation was created to preferentially deposit CdS near the core, providing relaxation of the strain at the core/shell interface. For spherical CdSe cores, the homogeneous deposition of the Cd(x)Zn1-xS shell created spherical core/shell nanocrystals (NCs) with a size of 7.1 nm in diameter. In the case of using CdSe cores with rod morphology, the anisotropic aggregation behaviors of CdS monomers on CdSe rods led to the size (approximately 10 nm in diameter) of spherical CdSe/Cd(x)Zn1-xS core/shell NCs with a small difference to the length of the CdSe rod (approximately 8.9 nm). The resulting spherical core/shell NCs created by the rod and spherical cores exhibited almost same PL peak wavelength (652 and 653 nm for using rod and spherical cores, respectively), high PL efficiency up to 50%, and narrow PL spectra (36 and 28 nm of full with at half maximum of PL spectra for the core/shell NCs with CdSe spheres and rods, respectively). These core/shell NCs provide an opportunity for the study of the evolution of PL properties as the shape of semiconductor NCs.