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Updated: Sep 23, 2025
Preparation of Silica Nanoparticles Through Microwave-assisted Acid-catalysis
Published on: December 16, 2013
Highly photoluminescent and stable silicon nanocrystals functionalized via microwave-assisted hydrosilylation
Deski Beri1,2, Dmitry Busko1, Andrey Mazilkin3
1Institute of Microstructure Technology, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology Hermann-von-Helmholtz-Platz 1, 76344, Eggenstein-Leopoldshafen Germany andrey.turshatov@kit.edu bryce.richards@kit.edu.
Abstract:
Herein, we report a microwave-assisted hydrosilylation (MWH) reaction for the surface passivation of silicon nanocrystals (Si-NCs) with linear alkenes. The MWH reaction requires only 20 minutes and allows us to produce Si-NCs with high photoluminescence quantum yields (PLQYs), reaching 39% with an emission maximum of 860 nm. Furthermore, we investigated the effect of ligand length on the photoluminescence properties of Si-NCs. We tested six alkenes with an even number of carbon atoms (from hexene-1 to hexadecene-1). The highest PLQY combined with a long stability (test period of 6 months) was observed when capping with the shortest ligand, hexene-1. The use of microwave heating turns the hydrosilylation step into a facile and sustainable process. In order to provide insight into the emissive properties of Si-NCs surface oxidation and luminescence decay were investigated using Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy and time-resolved photoluminescence measurements.
