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Nano Research 2020, 13(4): 1071-1080 https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-020-2747-3
Research Article | Open Access | Issue | Published: 17 April 2020

Coupling effects in QD dimers at sub-nanometer interparticle distance

Show Author's Information Carlo Nazareno Dibenedetto1,2,§,  Elisabetta Fanizza1,2,§,  Rosaria Brescia3,  Yuval Kolodny4,  Sergei Remennik4,  Annamaria Panniello1,  Nicoletta Depalo1,  Shira Yochelis4,  Roberto Comparelli1,  Angela Agostiano1,2,  Maria Lucia Curri1,2,  Yossi Paltiel4,  Marinella Striccoli1( )
CNR-Istituto per i Processi Chimico-Fisici SS Bari, Via Orabona 4, 70125 - Bari, Italy
Dipartimento di Chimica, Università degli Studi di Bari Aldo Moro, Via Orabona 4, 70125-Bari, Italy
Electron Microscopy Facility, Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, via Morego 30, 16163 Genova, Italy
Department of Applied Physics and the Center for Nanoscience and Nanotechnology, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem 9190401, Israel

§ Carlo Nazareno Dibenedetto and Elisabetta Fanizza contributed equally to the work.

Keywords:
quantum dots, surface chemistry, coupling, dimers, dithiols
Topics:
Cadmium compoundsElectronic propertiesIISelenium compoundsSolsVI semiconductors
Cite this article:
Dibenedetto CN, Fanizza E, Brescia R, et al. Coupling effects in QD dimers at sub-nanometer interparticle distance. Nano Research, 2020, 13(4): 1071-1080. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-020-2747-3
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Abstract Full text Electronic supplementary material About this article

Currently, intensive research efforts focus on the fabrication of meso-structures of assembled colloidal quantum dots (QDs) with original optical and electronic properties. Such collective features originate from the QDs coupling, depending on the number of connected units and their distance. However, the development of general methodologies to assemble colloidal QD with precise stoichiometry and particle-particle spacing remains a key challenge. Here, we demonstrate that dimers of CdSe QDs, stable in solution, can be obtained by engineering QD surface chemistry, reducing the surface steric hindrance and favoring the link between two QDs. The connection is made by using alkyl dithiols as bifunctional linkers and different chain lengths are used to tune the interparticle distance from few nm down to 0.5 nm. The spectroscopic investigation highlights that coupling phenomena between the QDs in dimers are strongly dependent on the interparticle distance and QD size, ultimately affecting the exciton dissociation efficiency.


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About this article

Coupling effects in QD dimers at sub-nanometer interparticle distance

Show Author's information Carlo Nazareno Dibenedetto1,2,§, Elisabetta Fanizza1,2,§, Rosaria Brescia3, Yuval Kolodny4, Sergei Remennik4, Annamaria Panniello1, Nicoletta Depalo1, Shira Yochelis4, Roberto Comparelli1, Angela Agostiano1,2, Maria Lucia Curri1,2, Yossi Paltiel4, Marinella Striccoli1( )
CNR-Istituto per i Processi Chimico-Fisici SS Bari, Via Orabona 4, 70125 - Bari, Italy
Dipartimento di Chimica, Università degli Studi di Bari Aldo Moro, Via Orabona 4, 70125-Bari, Italy
Electron Microscopy Facility, Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, via Morego 30, 16163 Genova, Italy
Department of Applied Physics and the Center for Nanoscience and Nanotechnology, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem 9190401, Israel

§ Carlo Nazareno Dibenedetto and Elisabetta Fanizza contributed equally to the work.

Abstract

Currently, intensive research efforts focus on the fabrication of meso-structures of assembled colloidal quantum dots (QDs) with original optical and electronic properties. Such collective features originate from the QDs coupling, depending on the number of connected units and their distance. However, the development of general methodologies to assemble colloidal QD with precise stoichiometry and particle-particle spacing remains a key challenge. Here, we demonstrate that dimers of CdSe QDs, stable in solution, can be obtained by engineering QD surface chemistry, reducing the surface steric hindrance and favoring the link between two QDs. The connection is made by using alkyl dithiols as bifunctional linkers and different chain lengths are used to tune the interparticle distance from few nm down to 0.5 nm. The spectroscopic investigation highlights that coupling phenomena between the QDs in dimers are strongly dependent on the interparticle distance and QD size, ultimately affecting the exciton dissociation efficiency.

Keywords: quantum dots, surface chemistry, coupling, dimers, dithiols

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Publication history

Received: 16 December 2019
Revised: 05 March 2020
Accepted: 06 March 2020
Published: 17 April 2020
Issue date: April 2020

Copyright

© The Author(s) 2020

Acknowledgements

This work is financially supported by the H2020 FET project COPAC (Contract agreement n.766563).

The MIUR PRIN 2015 n. 2015XBZ5YA is also acknowledged.

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