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Updated: Oct 13, 2025
A Modular Microfluidic Technology for Systematic Studies of Colloidal Semiconductor Nanocrystals
Published on: May 10, 2018
Low-temperature synthesis of tetrapod CdSe/CdS quantum dots through a microfluidic reactor
Weishuo Xing1, Shuang Zhang1, Ruoting An1
1Tianjin Key Laboratory of Electronic Materials and Devices, School of Electronics and Information Engineering, Hebei University of Technology, 5340 Xiping Road, Tianjin 300401, P. R. China. shu.xu@hebut.edu.cn.
Abstract:
Tetrapod CdSe/CdS quantum dots (QDs) have attracted extensive research interest in light-emitting applications due to their anisotropic optical properties and large absorption cross-section. Traditional synthesis methods for tetrapod CdSe/CdS QDs usually employ fatty phosphonic acid ligands to induce the growth of wurtzite CdS arms on cubic CdSe QDs at high temperatures (350-380 °C). Here, a low temperature (120 °C) route was developed for the synthesis of tetrapod CdSe/CdS QDs using mixed amine ligands instead of phosphonic acid ligands. A study of the growth mechanism reveals that the amine ligands induce the orientation growth of cubic CdS arms on wurtzite CdSe QDs through a pyramid-shaped intermediate structure. The low reaction temperature facilitates the growth control of the tetrapod CdSe/CdS QDs through a microfluidic reactor. This study substantially simplifies the synthetic chemistry for the anisotropic growth of CdS on CdSe QDs, paving the way for green and economic production of tetrapod CdSe/CdS QDs towards efficient light-emitting applications.
