One-pot/three-step synthesis of zinc-blende CdSe/CdS core/shell nanocrystals with thick shells

A one-pot/three-step synthetic scheme was developed for phase-pure epitaxy of CdS shells on zinc-blende CdSe nanocrystals to yield shells with up to sixteen monolayers. The key parameters for the epitaxy were identified, including the core nanocrystal concentration, solvent type/composition, quality of the core nanocrystals, epitaxial growth temperature, type/concentration of ligands, and composition of the precursors. Most of these key parameters were not influential when the synthetic goal was thin-shell CdSe/CdS core/shell nanocrystals. The finalized synthetic scheme was reproducible at an almost quantitative level in terms of the crystal structure, shell thickness, and optical properties.