Publication date: 15th December 2025
Quantum dots have opened the way to new technologies due to their unique tunable photoelectronic properties. To fabricate devices, they are processed as concentrated inks with short ligands after replacing the insulating ligands used in their colloidal synthesis. Cadmium selenide (CdSe) is a ubiquitously studied quantum dot system with extensive synthetic and surface chemistry understanding. Yet no direct ink synthesis has been developed other than aqueous routes that show poor photoluminescence.
In this work, we develop a direct synthesis of inorganic-passivated CdSe QDs in polar solvents. We identify a thermally activated growth through magic-size clusters, which follows two-step nucleation and growth kinetics. Through liquid state 113Cd NMR, we show that highly Lewis basic solvents and weakly-coordinating ions favour the formation of high-quality CdSe nanocrystals. Surface characterisations, including ζ-potential, solid-state NMR, Raman and IR spectroscopy, reveal a disordered surface rich in cadmium-oxygen bonds, compromising the photoluminescence and chemical stability of the quantum dots. These results reinvigorate polar synthesis routes for quantum dots and improve our understanding towards a one-step synthesis of inorganic-passivated quantum dots.
Kaloyan Milanov, Simon Böhme, Anuluxan Santhiran, Shawon Abu, Aaron Rossini, Maksym Kovalenko
nanoGe is a prestigious brand of successful science conferences that are developed along the year in different areas of the world since 2009. Our worldwide conferences cover cutting-edge materials topics like perovskite solar cells, photovoltaics, optoelectronics, solar fuel conversion, surface science, catalysis and two-dimensional materials, among many others.
Previously nanoGe Spring Meeting (NSM) and nanoGe Fall Meeting (NFM), MATSUS is a multiple symposia conference focused on a broad set of topics of advanced materials preparation, their fundamental properties, and their applications, in fields such as renewable energy, photovoltaics, lighting, semiconductor quantum dots, 2-D materials synthesis, charge carriers dynamics, microscopy and spectroscopy semiconductors fundamentals, etc.
International Conference on Hybrid and Organic Photovoltaics
International Conference on Hybrid and Organic Photovoltaics (HOPV) is celebrated yearly in May. The main topics are the development, function and modeling of materials and devices for hybrid and organic solar cells. The field is now dominated by perovskite solar cells but also other hybrid technologies, as organic solar cells, quantum dot solar cells, and dye-sensitized solar cells and their integration into devices for photoelectrochemical solar fuel production.
Asia-Pacific International Conference on Perovskite, Organic Photovoltaics and Optoelectronics
The main topics of the Asia-Pacific International Conference on Perovskite, Organic Photovoltaics and Optoelectronics (IPEROP) are discussed every year in Asia-Pacific for gathering the recent advances in the fields of material preparation, modeling and fabrication of perovskite and hybrid and organic materials. Photovoltaic devices are analyzed from fundamental physics and materials properties to a broad set of applications. The conference also covers the developments of perovskite optoelectronics, including light-emitting diodes, lasers, optical devices, nanophotonics, nonlinear optical properties, colloidal nanostructures, photophysics and light-matter coupling.
The International Conference on Perovskite Thin Film Photovoltaics Perovskite Photonics and Optoelectronics (NIPHO) is the best place to hear the latest developments in perovskite solar cells as well as on recent advances in the fields of perovskite light-emitting diodes, lasers, optical devices, nanophotonics, nonlinear optical properties, colloidal nanostructures, photophysics and light-matter coupling.