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Updated: Feb 15, 2026

Correlative Light- and Electron Microscopy Using Quantum Dot Nanoparticles
Published on: August 7, 2016
A thin CdSe shell boosts the electron transfer from CdTe quantum dots to methylene blue
L Dworak1, S Roth, M P Scheffer
1Institute of Physical and Theoretical Chemistry, Goethe-University Frankfurt, Max-von-Laue-Str. 7, D-60438 Frankfurt am Main, Germany. wveitl@theochem.uni-frankfurt.de.
Abstract:
CdTe core and CdTe/CdSe core/shell quantum dots (QD) are investigated with steady state and time-resolved spectroscopic methods. The coating of the CdTe core with a 0.7 nm thick CdSe shell shifts the lowest exciton absorption band to the red by more than 70 nm making the CdTe/CdSe QD an interesting candidate for application in solar energy conversion. Femtosecond transient absorption measurements are applied to study the photoinduced electron transfer (ET) to the molecular acceptor methylene blue (MB). ET times after single excitation of the QD are determined for different MB : QD ratios. The ET reaction is significantly faster in the case of the MB-CdTe/CdSe QD complexes, indicative of an altered charge distribution in the photoexcited heterostructure with a higher electron density in the CdSe shell. As a result of the efficient absorption of incoming light and the faster ET reaction, the amount of reduced MB in the time resolved experiments is higher for CdTe/CdSe QD compared to CdTe QD.
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The Dot Product
Dot Product
In engineering, the dot product of any two vectors is the product of the magnitudes of the vectors and the cosine of the angle between them. It is denoted by a dot symbol between the two vectors.
Consider a vehicle pulling an object along the ground using a rope. If the rope makes an angle with the horizontal axis, the work done can be calculated using the dot product of the force applied and the object's displacement.
The dot...

