The effect of acetic acid in synthesizing PbSe quantum dots by hot solution chemical process

Abstract

PbSe, with a band gap in the mid-infrared and a samll effective mass, is an interesting material for optical and electrical applications in infrared region. Various colloidal synthetic routes for synthesizing PbSe quantum dot nanoparticles have been developed in the last couple of years. In this work, stable colloidal solutions containing crystalline PbSe particles in the order of 5-15 nm were synthesized using different amount of acetic acid in high boiling coordinating solvents. The size and shape of PbSe nanoparticles was greatly influenced by coexistence of acetic acid in synthetic medium. It was observed by TEM that the shape of PbSe nanoparticles with different amount of acetic acid was changed from spherical to cube or star types.