Synthesis and electrochemical properties of InP nanocrystals
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Synthesis and electrochemical properties of InP nanocrystals Sandeep Kumar,a) Ralf Thomann, and Thomas Nannb) Freiburg Materials Research Center, Freiburg 79104, Germany (Received 7 September 2005; accepted 22 November 2005)
In this report, we present a new organometallic synthetic method to prepare nearly monodisperse InP nanoparticles using indium trifluoroacetate as the In precursor. Spherical particles of various sizes were prepared by modulating the growth duration. The optical and electrochemical properties were investigated and discussed with reference to band edge positions. This is the first report on the band edge position of quantum confined InP nanoparticles, which is a key parameter for development of electro-optic devices like solar cells and light-emitting diodes based on it.
Semiconductor nanoparticles have gained increasing attention from the research community because of their interesting size-dependent behavior. This size-dependent behavior causes these materials to be highly desirable for applications such as photovoltaic devices,1–3 catalysts,4 light emitting diodes,5–7 phosphors,8 and biological taggings.9–11 Among the wide variety of semiconducting materials, most of the reports on the synthetic success and their subsequent use in the above mentioned applications were mostly limited to cadmium-based chalcogenides. 12–15 These cadmium-based chalcogenides, namely, CdSe and CdTe offer the posibility to tune the absorption edge as well as emission wavelength in the whole visible and infrared (IR) region, thereby representing a model system for size-dependent property modification. In spite of the ease of preparation of these Cdbased chalcogenides and their potential for the future technology, the toxicity of Cd is a major issue in development of any commercial products based on these nanocrystals. To overcome this toxicity issue, one can think of using relatively nontoxic InP nanoparticles for this applicationoriented research. Like Cd-based chalcogenides, InP also offers the tunability of its absorption and emission range in the visible range, which extends up to the infrared range. InP has a bulk absorption edge at 937 nm, thereby providing ways to develop infrared sensitive particles for
Address all correspondence to these authors. a) e-mail: [email protected] b) e-mail: [email protected] DOI: 10.1557/JMR.2006.0068 J. Mater. Res., Vol. 21, No. 3, Mar 2006
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applications like in vivo monitoring of cells.16 Furthermore, for applications like photovoltaics, use of this material can extend the absorption range of the device up to the IR region. This means that a greater part of the sunlight can be absorbed and subsequently used in light harvesting. The use of InP nanoparticles in a polymerbased photovoltaic device can be a breakthrough in this technology as this can simultaneously provide a better absorption range of the device, the advantage of nontoxicity of InP, and a better device performance due to its higher el
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