Synthesis of Inorganic-Organic 2D CdSe Slab-Diamine Quantum Nets

Porous semiconductors attract great interest due to their unique structural characteristics of high surface area as well as their intrinsic optical and electronic properties. In this study, synthesis of inorganic-organic 2D CdSe slabs-diaminooctane (DAO) porous quantum net structures is demonstrated. It is found that the hybrid 2D CdSe-DAO lamellar structures are disintegrated into porous net structures, maintaining an ultrathin thickness of ≈1 nm in CdSe slabs. Furthermore, the CdSe slabs in quantum nets show the highly shifted excitonic transition in the absorption spectrum, demonstrating their strongly confined electronic structures. The possible formation mechanism of this porous structure is investigated with the control experiments of the synthesis using n-alkyldiamines with various hydrocarbon chain lengths and ligand exchange of DAO with oleylamine. It is suggested that a strong van der Waals interaction among long chain DAO may exert strong tensile stress on the CdSe slabs, eventually disintegrating slabs. The thermal decomposition of CdSe-DAO quantum nets is further studied to form well-defined CdSe nanorods. It is believed that the current CdSe-DAO quantum nets will offer a new type of porous semiconductors nanostructures under a strong quantum-confinement regime, which can be applied to various technological areas of catalysts, electronics, and optoelectronics.