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- cleaned using a mild acid solution which creates nascent surface. The surface
can be protected by ligands and be stored in air.
small clusters - surface atom reactivity produces thin oxide layer
bulk semiconductors - surface is cleaned by acid etching
Emission - studied in a range of nanocrystal materials (ZnO, CdS, CdSe)
- occurs due to detrapping of electrons
Traps - function as charge reservoirs and contribute to an increase in the emission time scale
Global Emission - excitation energy is much higher than the absorption maximum of the
sample
Fluorescence Line Narrowing - reduction of excitation energy which results to reduction of
range of particles excited thus narrowing the line width in
luminescence
X-ray Diffraction
- principal method used to identify the phases present in a solid state material
- producing smaller dimension crystallites of an already known phase
- crystal dimension decreases; diffraction peaks broaden
- may be compared with the data from other techniques
Scherer formula - used to find size of the particles
Ancillary Techniques
- For one electron confined in a 3D box, the energy levels will be:
2
h
En= 2 2 2 2
8 mc L (n x +n +n z )
Where
L = Lx = Ly =Lz, the length of the box in 3D
nx, ny, nz = the quantum numbers
mc = electron mass
Uses
Chemical Properties
Electron injection into conduction band particle surface will be covered with functional groups
- for oxides the functional group are hydroxyls which
take up the holes and form hydroxyl radicals to
produce radical mediated oxidation
- pollutants in water and soil can be removed by this
method
Photocatalysis can lead to reduction using the electron in the conduction band
- TiO2 is the most used photocatalyst
Organic Synthesis utilized the power of semiconductor particles
- aromatic ketones and olefins have been converted into alcohols and
corresponding saturated compounds
- cannot be used for properties like rectification or memory because these can only be
attained by the use of single electron transistors and single electron traps
- it is capable to charge or discharge nanosized regions selectively
Quantum dots used in single electron devices
Electroneutral dot number of electrons that it has is the same as the number of holes
Tunneling most common means of putting a charge into single electron device because the
device most often has an insulating barrier around it
- Q (charge) = -e produces an electric field E which repels any incoming negative
charge
- fundamental charge = 1.6 x 10-19
- electric field around the dot = 140 kV on a 10 nm diameter particle
Electronic energy states at smaller dimensions the materials are quantized
- at larger regimes up to 100 nm the addition energy is dominated
by the charging energy and the energy required for addition is of
the order of eV
Single electron transition manifested dramatically in current-voltage measurements of
nanocrystals
Coulomb staircase a device structure where a single nanoparticle is trapped between an
electron source and an electrode and the said electrode is separated at a
large distance for tunneling to cease to occur which applies a potential U.
This corresponds to external charge Q which produces a step-like function Qe = CU
in which Q is the function of U
- when thermal energy becomes comparable to the charging energy, the
thermal fluctuations smear out the staircase
- implies that electrons can be transferred one at a time