Proceedings of MATSUS Spring 2025 Conference (MATSUSSpring25)
DOI: https://doi.org/10.29363/nanoge.matsusspring.2025.221
Publication date: 16th December 2024
InP-based quantum dots (QDs) represent the major commercial success of colloidal semiconductor nanocrystals (NCs). A combination of the robust, mostly covalent, crystal structure and the non-toxic nature of the constituent elements makes them a QD material of choice for cutting-edge display and LED technologies.[1,2] Despite successful commercial realization, InP NCs lack convenient synthesis chemistry, as illustrated by a resent quest to substitute commonly used pyrophoric and expensive tris(trimethylsilyl)phosphine precursor.[3-5] Herein, we propose solid, non-pyrophoric, and synthetically easily accessible acylphosphines as convenient phosphorus precursors for the synthesis of InP QDs. When combined with suitable anionic nucleophiles, such as arylthiolates, both triacylphosphines and indium complexes of bisacylphosphines act as efficient sources of P3- anion, as corroborated by the results of NMR spectroscopy and powder XRD studies. This type of reactivity is utilized to synthesize uniform colloidal InP QDs with well-defined and tunable (460 – 600 nm) excitonic features in their absorption spectra. The final NCs size is controlled by the nature of acyl substituents and by the use of either indium or zinc long-chain carboxylates as ligands. Such adjustable precursor reactivity offers an improved control over the colloidal synthesis of InP, potentially opening a pathway to diverse InP-based hetero-nanostructures and InP NCs of anisotropic shapes. Furthermore, the proposed chemistry should be readily extendable to the synthesis of other metal phosphide and metal arsenide NCs.