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Confined growth of CdSe quantum dots in colloidal mesoporous silica for multifunctional nanostructures

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Abstract

We report a new and convenient strategy for incorporating fluorescent semiconductor nanocrystals into silica hosts for the synthesis of multifunctional nanostructures. Mesoscale porosity was first created in conventional Stöber silica spheres by chemical etching under the protection of polymeric ligands. Uniform and highly luminescent CdSe nanocrystals were then directly grown in the porous silica network by reacting the silica spheres in a growth solution at high temperature. The confinement of silica network led to slower nanocrystal growth and subsequently smaller CdSe dots with blue shifted fluorescence compared with those without confinement. The loading number of CdSe nanocrystals can be easily tuned by changing the degree of porosity of the silica. The advantages of this strategy include simplicity as no special surface treatment processes are needed, general applicability to silica hosts of various shapes and sizes, high flexibility in tuning the dimensions of both the active nanocrystals and host particles, and ample opportunities for incorporating multiple functionalities. With the demonstration of a porous Fe3O4@SiO2/CdSe composite structure with combined magnetic and optical properties, we believe this strategy may provide a platform for the fabrication of a large variety of multifunctional composite nanostructures.

中文摘要

本文报道了一种新颖且便捷的将荧光半导体纳米晶包覆到二氧化硅球中进而制备多功能纳米结构的方法. 从溶胶凝胶法合成二氧化硅微球开始, 在聚合物配体保护下进行化学刻蚀从而获得介孔级孔道, 然后将带有孔道的二氧化硅微球投入到制备CdSe量子点的高温反应体系中, 就可以直接在二氧化硅微球的孔道中生长尺寸均匀且具有高荧光产率的CdSe纳米晶. 研究发现二氧化硅微球中的孔道对于CdSe量子点的生长有一定的抑制作用, 因此与自由生长的量子点比较其荧光光谱会发生蓝移, 二氧化硅微球中负载CdSe量子点的数量可以通过选择不同刻蚀程度的二氧化硅微球来实现. 这种纳米结构优点在于: 不需要特殊的表面处理工艺, 对于不同形貌及尺寸的二氧化硅微球具有普适性, 对于纳米晶与主体材料的尺寸调控具有较高的灵活性, 并且可以同时包裹其他功能材料, 比如将磁性纳米粒子引入到该体系, 合成了兼具磁学与光学性能的Fe3O4@SiO2/CdSe复合纳米结构材料. 该方法为制备多功能复合纳米结构材料提供了一个平台.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Inorganic Synthesis & Preparative Chemistry, Jilin University, Changchun, 130012, China

    Chunguang Li & Zhan Shi

  2. Department of Chemistry, University of California, Riverside, CA, 92521, USA

    Chunguang Li, Zhenda Lu, Qiao Zhang, Jianping Ge & Yadong Yin

  3. The Molecular Foundry, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA, 94720, USA

    Shaul Aloni

Authors
  1. Chunguang Li
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  2. Zhenda Lu
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  3. Qiao Zhang
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  4. Jianping Ge
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  5. Shaul Aloni
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  6. Zhan Shi
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  7. Yadong Yin
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Correspondence to Yadong Yin.

Additional information

Chunguang Li received her PhD degree from the Department of Chemistry, Jilin University, Changchun, in 2010. Currently, she is an engineer at the State Key Laboratory of Inorganic Synthesis & Preparative Chemistry, Jilin University. Her research interests focuses on fabrication of colloidal inorganic nanostructures and their applications in biochemistry and photoelectronic fields.

Yadong Yin received his PhD degree in materials science and engineering from the University of Washington in 2002, then worked as a postdoctoral fellow at the University of California, Berkeley and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), and became a staff scientist at LBNL in 2005. In 2006 he joined the faculty at the Department of Chemistry at the University of California, Riverside. His research interests include the synthesis and application of nanostructured materials, self-assembly processes, and colloidal and interface chemistry.

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Li, C., Lu, Z., Zhang, Q. et al. Confined growth of CdSe quantum dots in colloidal mesoporous silica for multifunctional nanostructures. Sci. China Mater. 58, 481–489 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40843-015-0056-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40843-015-0056-z

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