Facile Method of Preparing Highly Luminescent Silica Gel Glass Incorporating Hydrophobic Semiconductor Quantum Dots

A facile method for preparing highly luminescent silica gel glass incorporating hydrophobic quantum dots (QDs) has been presented. The prepared glass showed excellent optical properties such as good transparency, high stability, and efficient luminescence. QDs with different crystal structures showed distinct behaviors when embedded into a silica matrix. QDs with zincblende structure showed better optical properties than that of wurtzite QDs. The luminescence efficiency of silica gel glass incorporating zincblende QDs reached up to 50%, same as the initial values in solution.