Catalytic and Catalyst-free Synthesis of CdSe Nanostructures with Single-Source Molecular Precursor and Related Device Application

• Published in: Nano letters Vol. 9; no. 1; pp. 437 - 441
• Main Authors: Zhang, Youxiang, Tang, Yun, Lee, Kwan, Ouyang, Min
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Washington, DC American Chemical Society 01.01.2009
• Subjects: Cadmium Compounds - chemistry; Catalysis; Catalytic methods; Condensed matter: structure, mechanical and thermal properties; Cross-disciplinary physics: materials science; rheology; Crystallization - methods; Exact sciences and technology; Low-dimensional structures (superlattices, quantum well structures, multilayers): structure, and nonelectronic properties; Macromolecular Substances - chemistry; Materials science; Materials Testing; Methods of nanofabrication; Molecular Conformation; Nanocrystalline materials; Nanoscale materials and structures: fabrication and characterization; Nanostructures - chemistry; Nanostructures - ultrastructure; Nanotechnology - instrumentation; Nanotechnology - methods; Particle Size; Physics; Quantum wires; Selenium Compounds - chemistry; Surface Properties; Surfaces and interfaces; thin films and whiskers (structure and nonelectronic properties); Gold; Catalysts; Thermal decomposition; VLS growth; Photocurrents; Nanostructures; Precursor; Cadmium selenides; Nanometer scale; Morphology; Growth mechanism; Nanowires; Photoconductivity; Nanostructured materials; Gates; Nanomaterial synthesis
• ISSN: 1530-6984; 1530-6992
• DOI: 10.1021/nl803352p

Air-stable single-source molecular precursor is applied for controlled size and morphology synthesis of one-dimensional and quasi-one-dimensional CdSe nanostructures. Two different growth approaches are compared to control the growth of nanostructures. When combined with well-defined Au colloidal catalysts, the use of single-source molecular precursor allows diameter control synthesis of monodispersed CdSe nanowires from 10−30 nm via a vapor−liquid−solid mechanism. In addition, a variety of CdSe nanostructures with different morphologies can be achieved and tuned without assistance of metallic catalysts by carefully manipulating dynamic thermal decomposition process of single-source molecular precursor. The new level of synthetic control afforded by our present work opens up new opportunities for using as-synthesized CdSe nanostructures as model systems for fundamental studies as well as building blocks for larger scale functional device assembly. Importantly, we demonstrate that a single CdSe tripod can be natively configured as a nanoscale phototransistor in which photocurrent created between two tripod arms can be efficiently modulated by applying a gate voltage through the third arm.