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Formation of ZnSe magic-size clusters displaying optical absorption doublets from prenucleation clusters

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Abstract

The formation pathway of colloidal semiconductor ZnSe magic-size clusters (MSCs) in a reaction that display an optical absorption doublet remains poorly understood. The reaction of Zn(OAc)2/OLA (made from zinc acetate and oleylamine) and tri-n-octylphosphine selenide (SeTOP) in OLA in the presence of diphenylphosphine (HPPh2) is studied, in which dMSC-345 displays a doublet peaking at 328/345 nm. We suggest that the development is from the clusters that form in the initial prenucleation stage of the reaction. The clusters are the precursor compound (PC-299) of MSC-299 (displaying an absorption singlet peaking at 299 nm). PC-299 transforms to PC-345 at a later stage. The presence of alcohol (such as methanol or ethylene glycol) promotes another pathway, which is the PC-299 to PC-320 transformation. PC-320 transforms to dMSC-320 (with a doublet at 305/320 nm), followed by dMSC-345 via PC-345. The present study provides additional evidence that clusters (PC-299) form and transform (such as to dMSC-345 via PC-345) in the prenucleation stage of ZnSe quantum dots (QDs).

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Acknowledgements

K. Y. thanks the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 22275126), the Natural Science Foundation of Sichuan Province (No. 2023NSFSC0634), and the Open Project of Key State Laboratory for Supramolecular Structures and Materials of Jilin University (No. SKLSSM 2023031). C. R. L. thanks the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 22305162). We thank Dr. Li He and Dr. Meng Zhang for their assistance in the experimental design and manuscript preparation. For 1H NMR and TEM, we thank Analysis and Testing Center of Sichuan University (Dr. ChunChun Zhang and Dr. Shanling Wang). We are also grateful to Dr. Feng Yang (College of Chemistry, Sichuan University) for her invaluable patience for TEM. For LDI-TOF MS, we thank the comprehensive training platform of the Specialized Laboratory of College of Chemistry, Sichuan University.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Atomic and Molecular Physics, Sichuan University, Chengdu, 610065, China

    Dingyu Zhao & Kui Yu

  2. Engineering Research Center in Biomaterials, Sichuan University, Chengdu, 610065, China

    Shasha Wang, Jiawei Xue, Xiaoqin Chen & Kui Yu

  3. Analytical & Testing Center, Sichuan University, Chengdu, 610065, China

    Chunchun Zhang & Shanling Wang

  4. College of Biomedical Engineering, Sichuan University, Chengdu, 610065, China

    Chaoran Luan

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  1. Dingyu Zhao
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Zhao, D., Wang, S., Xue, J. et al. Formation of ZnSe magic-size clusters displaying optical absorption doublets from prenucleation clusters. Nano Res. (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-024-6627-0

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