
Dr. Albert Figuerola
Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, Genova, Italy
Author | Albert Figuerola, Marijn van Huis, Marco Zanella, Alessandro Genovese, Sergio Marras, Andrea Falqui, Henny W. Zandbergen, Roberto Cingolani and Liberato Manna.
Email | liberato.manna@iit.it.
Application | Epitaxial CdSe-Au Nanocrystal Heterostructures by Thermal Annealing (Cited by 59 times) |
Authors | Albert Figuerola, Marijn van Huis, Marco Zanella, Alessandro Genovese, Sergio Marras, Andrea Falqui, Henny W. Zandbergen, Roberto Cingolani and Liberato Manna. |
Journal | Nano Lett., 2010, 10 (8), pp 3028–3036 |
Sample | Nano-Particles |
Topic | Interface, Diffusion, Catalyst stability |
Field | Chemistry, Material Science, Electronics |
Techniques | HRTEM |
Keywords | Nanorods; nanocrystals; self-assembly; epitaxy; orientation relationship; interface; hybrid nanocrystals; gold; cadmium selenide; annealing |
Publication | Full publication here – DOI: 10.1021/nl101482q |
Epitaxial CdSe-Au Nanocrystal Heterostructures by Thermal Annealing
ABSTRACT: The thermal evolution of a collection of heterogeneous CdSe−Au nanosystems (Au-decorated CdSe nanorods, networks, vertical assemblies) prepared by wet-chemical approaches was monitored in situ in the transmission electron microscope. In contrast to interfaces that are formed during kinetically controlled wet chemical synthesis, heating under vacuum conditions results in distinct and well-defined CdSe/Au interfaces, located at the CdSe polar surfaces. The high quality of these interfaces should make the heterostructures more suitable for use in nanoscale electronic devices.
DENSsolutions Comments
Colloidal inorganic nanocrystals of semiconductors are promising materials in a variety of applications. For example, in photocatalysis and photovoltaics, the photoinduced generation of charge carriers in nanocrystals can lead to the oxidation/reduction of molecular species or to the generation of clean electrical energy, respectively. In both cases, the performance of the material depends strongly on its charge separation ability and on the construction of suitable nanocrystal-electrode interfaces.
The growth of metallic domains directly on the surface of the semiconductor nanocrystals can help to improve both factors. Thus the nature of the metal-semiconductor nanointerface and its influence on the local electronic structure of the nanorod have become subjects of particular interest in the past decade. Various efforts are devoted to improve the interface between metal and semiconductors.
Using the DENSsolutions heating system, the researchers are able to observe the In-Situ thermal evolution of heterogeneous CdSe-Au nanosystem. The low drift at elevated temperature allows structural and shape transformations in individual nanocrystals that could be imaged in real time with atomic resolution. The researchers showed that such treatment leads to heterostructures with better defined metal-semiconductor interfaces. The high quality of these interfaces should make the heterostructures more suitable for use in nanoscale electronic devices.