Jonathan Owen

The Synthesis and Coordination Chemistry of Colloidal Quantum Dot Phosphors

I will describe our studies of nanocrystal nucleation and growth and surface coordination chemistry. First, I will present a library of derivatized thiourea and selenourea precursors whose wide range of reactivity adjusts the metal chalcogenide formation kinetics. Using this library, we control the concentration of nanocrystals using the conversion reactivity, and can prepare red-emitting quantum dots with > 90% PLQY in a single step. Second, I will describe the important relationship between nanocrystal coordination chemistry and electronic structure. Using liquid NMR spectroscopy we have characterized a variety of novel ligand binding and exchange mechanisms and evaluated the relative affinities of various donors. The importance of these structures to surface electronic structure will be discussed.