Inorganically functionalized PbS-CdS colloidal nanocrystals: integration into amorphous chalcogenide glass and luminescent properties.

Inorganic semiconductor nanocrystals (NCs) with bright, stable, and wavelength-tunable luminescence are very promising emitters for various photonic and optoelectronic applications. Recently developed strategies for inorganic surface capping of colloidal NCs using metal chalcogenide complexes have opened new perspectives for their applications. Here we report an all-inorganic surface functionalization of highly luminescent IR-emitting PbS-CdS NCs and studies of their luminescence properties. We show that inorganic capping allows simple low-temperature encapsulation of inorganic NCs into a solution-cast IR-transparent amorphous As(2)S(3) matrix. The resulting all-inorganic thin films feature stable IR luminescence in the telecommunication wavelength region. The high optical dielectric constant of As(2)S(3) also helps reduce the dielectric screening of the radiating field inside the quantum dot, enabling fast radiative recombination in PbS-CdS NCs.

Infrared emitting and photoconducting colloidal silver chalcogenide nanocrystal quantum dots from a silylamide-promoted synthesis.

Here, we present a hot injection synthesis of colloidal Ag chalcogenide nanocrystals (Ag(2)Se, Ag(2)Te, and Ag(2)S) that resulted in exceptionally small nanocrystal sizes in the range between 2 and 4 nm. Ag chalcogenide nanocrystals exhibit band gap energies within the near-infrared spectral region, making these materials promising as environmentally benign alternatives to established infrared active nanocrystals containing toxic metals such as Hg, Cd, and Pb. We present Ag(2)Se nanocrystals in detail, giving size-tunable luminescence with quantum yields above 1.7%. The luminescence, with a decay time on the order of 130 ns, was shown to improve due to the growth of a monolayer thick ZnSe shell. Photoconductivity with a quantum efficiency of 27% was achieved by blending the Ag(2)Se nanocrystals with a soluble fullerene derivative. The co-injection of lithium silylamide was found to be crucial to the synthesis of Ag chalcogenide nanocrystals, which drastically increased their nucleation rate even at relatively low growth temperatures. Because the same observation was made for the nucleation of Cd chalcogenide nanocrystals, we conclude that the addition of lithium silylamide might generally promote wet-chemical synthesis of metal chalcogenide nanocrystals, including in as-yet unexplored materials.

Charge transfer dynamics in polymer-fullerene blends for efficient solar cells.

Blends of poly(3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT) and the bis-adduct of [6,6]-phenyl-C(61)-butyric acid methyl ester (bisPCBM) show enhanced performances in bulk-heterojunction solar cells compared to P3HT:PCBM thin films due to their higher open-circuit voltage. However, it is not clear whether the decrease of the short-circuit current observed in P3HT-bisPCBM blends originates from the 100 mV reduction of the offset between the lowest unoccupied molecular orbitals of the donor and the acceptor or from a change in the morphology. The analysis of the photoluminescence dynamics of the various bulk heterojunctions provides information on the dependence of the electron transfer process on their microstructure. We find that in solution, where the donor-acceptor distribution is homogeneous, the photoluminescence dynamics is the same for the bis- and PCBM-based blends, while in thin films the first shows a slower dynamics than the second. This result indicates that the reduction of the LUMO offset of approximately 100 meV does not influence the electron transfer efficiency but that the diversity between the photoluminescence dynamics in thin films should be ascribed to the different microstructure of the bulk heterojunctions fabricated with the two acceptors.