Copper Acetate Etching of Colloidal CdSe Nanocrystals

Colloidal CdSe nanocrystals (NCs) were etched after Se/TBP and Zinc stearate/ODE were injected into the mixture of as-prepared CdSe NCs and Copper (II) acetate in ODE solvent. Spectroscopic and structural investigations demonstrate the etching process. Along with the etching time, both the absorption and photoluminescence (PL) spectra of etched NCs showed blue-shift while the transmission electron microscopy (TEM) images indicated that the size of the NCs became from 5.6[Formula: see text]nm to 2.6[Formula: see text]nm. X-ray diffraction (XRD) patterns suggested that no other clusters or core/shell NCs were formed in the etching process and inductively coupled plasma (ICP) data demonstrated that only selenium and cadmium comprised the etched NCs. Electronic paramagnetic resonance (EPR) spectra indicated the deoxidization of Cu[Formula: see text] ions and suggested the etching mechanism through cation exchange process.