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Bootharaju MS, Baek W, Lee S, Chang H, Kim J, Hyeon T. Magic-Sized Stoichiometric II-VI Nanoclusters. SMALL (WEINHEIM AN DER BERGSTRASSE, GERMANY) 2021; 17:e2002067. [PMID: 33164322 DOI: 10.1002/smll.202002067] [Citation(s) in RCA: 19] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/30/2020] [Revised: 07/21/2020] [Indexed: 05/26/2023]
Abstract
Metal chalcogenide nanomaterials have gained widespread interest in the past two decades for their potential optoelectronic, energy, and catalytic applications. The colloidal growth of various forms of these materials, such as nanowires, platelets, and lamellar assemblies, proceeds through certain thermodynamically stable, ultrasmall (<2 nm) intermediates called magic-sized nanoclusters (MSCs). Due to quantum confinement and its resultant intriguing properties, isolation or direct synthesis of MSCs and their structure characterization, which is very much challenging, are current topics of fundamental and applied scientific research. By comprehensive understanding of the structure-activity relationships in MSCs, the nucleation and growth processes can be manipulated, resulting in the synthesis of novel metal chalcogenide materials for various applications. This review focuses on recent advances in the chemical synthesis, characterization, and theoretical calculations of CdSe and its related II-VI nanoclusters. It highlights the studies of photophysical and magneto-optical properties as well as heteroatom doping of MSCs followed by their chemical transformation to high-dimensional nanostructures. At the end of the review, future directions and possible ways to overcome the challenges in the research of semiconductor MSCs are also presented.
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Affiliation(s)
- Megalamane S Bootharaju
- Center for Nanoparticle Research, Institute for Basic Science (IBS), Seoul, 08826, Republic of Korea
- School of Chemical and Biological Engineering, and Institute of Chemical Processes, Seoul National University, Seoul, 08826, Republic of Korea
| | - Woonhyuk Baek
- Center for Nanoparticle Research, Institute for Basic Science (IBS), Seoul, 08826, Republic of Korea
- School of Chemical and Biological Engineering, and Institute of Chemical Processes, Seoul National University, Seoul, 08826, Republic of Korea
| | - Sanghwa Lee
- Center for Nanoparticle Research, Institute for Basic Science (IBS), Seoul, 08826, Republic of Korea
- School of Chemical and Biological Engineering, and Institute of Chemical Processes, Seoul National University, Seoul, 08826, Republic of Korea
| | - Hogeun Chang
- Center for Nanoparticle Research, Institute for Basic Science (IBS), Seoul, 08826, Republic of Korea
- School of Chemical and Biological Engineering, and Institute of Chemical Processes, Seoul National University, Seoul, 08826, Republic of Korea
| | - Junhee Kim
- Center for Nanoparticle Research, Institute for Basic Science (IBS), Seoul, 08826, Republic of Korea
- School of Chemical and Biological Engineering, and Institute of Chemical Processes, Seoul National University, Seoul, 08826, Republic of Korea
| | - Taeghwan Hyeon
- Center for Nanoparticle Research, Institute for Basic Science (IBS), Seoul, 08826, Republic of Korea
- School of Chemical and Biological Engineering, and Institute of Chemical Processes, Seoul National University, Seoul, 08826, Republic of Korea
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Du N, Cui Y, Zhang L, Yang M. Effect of Mn doping on the electron injection in CdSe/TiO 2 quantum dot sensitized solar cells. Phys Chem Chem Phys 2021; 23:647-656. [PMID: 33332495 DOI: 10.1039/d0cp03866k] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 02/05/2023]
Abstract
Promotion in power conversion efficiency is an appealing task for quantum dot-sensitized solar cells that have emerged as promising materials for the utilization of clean and sustainable energy. Doping of Mn atoms into quantum dots (QD) has been proven to be one of the effective approaches, although the origin of such a promotion remains controversial. While several procedures are involved in the power conversion process, electron injection from the QD to the semiconductor oxide substrate is focused on in this work using first-principles calculations. Based on the Marcus theory, the electron injection rates are evaluated for the quantum dot-sensitized solar cell models in which the pure and Mn-doped core-shell CdSe clusters are deposited on a semiconductor titanium dioxide substrate. Enhanced rates are obtained for the Mn-doped structure, which is in qualitative agreement with the experiments. A large number of dominant injection channels and strong QD-substrate coupling are responsible for the Mn-induced rate enhancement, which could be achieved by manipulating the band structure mapping between the QD and the semiconductor oxide. By addressing the role of an Mn dopant in the electron injection process, strategies for the promotion of electron injection rates are proposed for the design of quantum dot-sensitized solar cells.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ning Du
- Institute of Atomic and Molecular Physics, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610065, China.
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Nasraoui S, Attia G, Haj Mohamed NB, Ben Chaabane R, Allouche AR. Effects of thiol ligands on the growth and stability of CdS nanoclusters. J Mol Struct 2019. [DOI: 10.1016/j.molstruc.2019.07.079] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/17/2022]
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Paes LWC, Suarez JA, Márquez AM, Bernardo da Cruz AG, Sanz JF. Electronic structure and adsorption geometry of Pt and Pd metal complexes with 1,3-dithiole-2-thione-4,5-dithiolate ligand on TiO2(101) surface from first-principles calculations. Theor Chem Acc 2019. [DOI: 10.1007/s00214-019-2474-6] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/26/2022]
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Ding WL, Peng XL, Sun ZZ, Li ZS. The electron injection rate in CdSe quantum dot sensitized solar cells: from a bifunctional linker and zinc oxide morphology. NANOSCALE 2017; 9:16806-16816. [PMID: 29072766 DOI: 10.1039/c7nr04847e] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/07/2023]
Abstract
Herein, we have investigated the effect of both the bifunctional linker (L1, L2, L3, and L4) and ZnO morphology (porous nanoparticles (NPs), nanowires (NWs), and nanotubes (NTs-A and NTs-Z)) on the electron injection in CdSe QD sensitized solar cells by first-principles simulation. Via calculating the partitioned interfaces formed by different components (linker/QDs and ZnO/linker), we found that the electronic states of QDs and every ZnO substrate are insensitive to any linker, while the frontier orbitals of L1-L4 (with increased delocalization) manifest a systematical negative-shift. Because of the lowest unoccupied molecular orbital (LUMO) of L1 compared to its counterparts aligned in the region of the virtual states of QDs or the substrate with a high density of states, it always yields a stronger electronic coupling with QDs and varied substrates. After characterization of the complete ZnO/linker/QD system, we found that the electron injection time (τ) vastly depends on both the linker and substrate. On the one hand, L1 bridged QDs and every substrate always achieve the shortest τ compared to their counterpart associated cases. On the other hand, NW supported systems always yield the shortest τ no matter what the linker is. Overall, the NW/L1/QD system achieves the fastest injection by ∼160 fs. This essentially stems from the shortest molecular length of L1 decreasing the distance between QDs and the substrate, subsequently improving the interfacial coupling. Meanwhile, the NW supported cases generate the less sensitive virtual states for both the QDs and NWs, ensuring a less variable interfacial coupling. These facts combined can provide understanding of the effects contributed from the linker and the oxide semiconductor morphology on charge transfer with the aim of choosing an appropriate component with fast directional electron injection.
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Affiliation(s)
- Wei-Lu Ding
- Beijing Key Laboratory of Cluster Science of Ministry of Education, Key Laboratory of Photoelectronic/Electrophotonic Conversion Materials, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing 100081, China.
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Amaya Suárez J, Plata JJ, Márquez AM, Fernández Sanz J. Ag2S Quantum Dot-Sensitized Solar Cells by First Principles: The Effect of Capping Ligands and Linkers. J Phys Chem A 2017; 121:7290-7296. [DOI: 10.1021/acs.jpca.7b07731] [Citation(s) in RCA: 15] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/30/2023]
Affiliation(s)
| | - Jose J. Plata
- Departmento
de Química Física, Universidad de Sevilla, 41012 Sevilla, Spain
- Department
of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina 27708, United States
| | - Antonio M. Márquez
- Departmento
de Química Física, Universidad de Sevilla, 41012 Sevilla, Spain
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Ai L, Jiang W, Liu Z, Liu J, Gao Y, Zou H, Wu Z, Wang Z, Liu Y, Zhang H, Yang B. Engineering a red emission of copper nanocluster self-assembly architectures by employing aromatic thiols as capping ligands. NANOSCALE 2017; 9:12618-12627. [PMID: 28825064 DOI: 10.1039/c7nr03985a] [Citation(s) in RCA: 59] [Impact Index Per Article: 8.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/07/2023]
Abstract
Luminescent Cu nanoclusters (NCs) are potential phosphors for illumination and display, but the difficulty in achieving full-color emission greatly limits practical applications. On the basis of our previous success in preparing Cu NC self-assembly architectures with blue-green and yellow emission, in this work, Cu NC self-assembly architectures with strong red emission are prepared by replacing alkylthiol ligands with aromatic thiols. The introduction of aromatic ligands is able to influence the ligand-to-metal charge transfer and/or ligand-to-metal-metal charge transfer, thus permitting the tuning of the emission color and enhancing of the emission intensity. The emission color can be tuned from yellow to dark red by choosing the aromatic ligands with different conjugation capabilities, and the photoluminescence quantum yield is up to 15.6%. Achieving full-color emission Cu NC self-assembly architectures allows the fabrication of Cu NC-based white light-emitting diodes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Lin Ai
- State Key Laboratory of Supramolecular Structure and Materials, College of Chemistry, Jilin University, Changchun 130012, P. R. China.
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Paes LWC, Suárez JA, Márquez AM, Sanz JF. First-principles study of nickel complex with 1,3-dithiole-2-thione-4,5-dithiolate ligands as model photosensitizers. Theor Chem Acc 2017. [DOI: 10.1007/s00214-017-2098-7] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/29/2022]
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Suárez JA, Plata JJ, Márquez AM, Sanz JF. Effects of the capping ligands, linkers and oxide surface on the electron injection mechanism of copper sulfide quantum dot-sensitized solar cells. Phys Chem Chem Phys 2017; 19:14580-14587. [DOI: 10.1039/c7cp01076a] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/23/2022]
Abstract
QDSCs are an effective alternative to fossil fuels. However, it is difficult to differentiate the effect of each component in optimization. DFT calculations are combined with a bottom-up approach to differentiate the effect of each component on the electronic structure and absorption spectra.
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Affiliation(s)
- Javier Amaya Suárez
- Departamento de Química Física
- Facultad de Química
- Universidad de Sevilla
- 41012 Sevilla
- Spain
| | - Jose J. Plata
- Department of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science
- Duke University
- Durham
- USA
| | - Antonio M. Márquez
- Departamento de Química Física
- Facultad de Química
- Universidad de Sevilla
- 41012 Sevilla
- Spain
| | - Javier Fdez. Sanz
- Departamento de Química Física
- Facultad de Química
- Universidad de Sevilla
- 41012 Sevilla
- Spain
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Sun J, Zheng X, He H, Chen X, Dong B, Fei R. Theoretical study of ligand and solvent effects on optical properties and stabilities of CdSe nanoclusters. J Mol Struct 2016. [DOI: 10.1016/j.molstruc.2016.02.068] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/25/2022]
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