Solvothermal synthesis and characterization of CdSe nanocrystals with controllable phase and morphology

Abstract Zinc blende (ZB) CdSe hollow nanospheres were solvothermally synthesized from the reaction of Cd(NO 3 ) 2 ·4H 2 O with a homogeneously secondary Se source, which was first prepared by dissolving Se powder in the mixture of ethanol and oleic acid at 205 °C. As Se power directly reacted with Cd(NO 3 ) 2 ·4H 2 O in the above mixed solvents, wurtzite (W) CdSe solid nanoparticles were produced. Time-dependent experiments suggested that the formation of CdSe hollow nanospheres was attributed to an inside-out Ostwald ripening process. The influences of reaction time, temperature and ethanol/oleic acid volume ratio on the morphology, phase and size of the hollow nanospheres were also studied. Infrared (IR) spectroscopy investigations revealed that oleic acid with long alkene chains behaved as a reducing agent to reduce Se powder to Se 2− in the synthesis. Photoluminescence (PL) measurements showed that the ZB CdSe hollow nanospheres presented an obvious blue-shifted emission by 42 nm, and the W CdSe solid nanoparticles exhibited a band gap emission of bulk counterpart.