Environmentally friendly approach to the synthesis of monodisperse and bright blue emitting Cd0.15Zn0.85S quantum dots

Abstract Nucleation and growth of quantum dots (QDs) in solution are mainly controlled by the kinetic and thermal modes of the reaction process. By influencing any of them, the properties of the final nanocrystals can be tuned. The influences of temperature and chemical nature of starting materials on nucleation and, as a consequence, on the structure and optical properties of Cd0.15Zn0.85S QDs have been systematically investigated by one-pot and hot-injection methods. All reactions were performed in organic disperse medium using N,N′-disubstituted and N,N′,N'-trisubstituted thioureas (TU) as a new sources of sulfur. In addition to environmental friendliness, each of them has a number of unique chemical properties. The effect of the substituents’ nature in thioureas on the morphology, size and optical properties of synthesized QDs has been studied. The strong correlation between the metal ratios taken to the reaction and elemental analysis (EDS) results for all obtained Cd0.15Zn0.85S QDs was found. However, prepared nanomaterials have different size (2.9–4.6 nm) and morphology. The optical features have also changed under the various thermal conditions. Especially, the changes in the photoluminescence spectra of QDs synthesized with different thioureas are noticeable. Highly photoluminescent (photoluminescence quantum yield PL QY up to 67%), morphologically and structurally homogeneous blue-emitting Cd0.15Zn0.85S QDs were obtained.