Manipulating the growth of aqueous semiconductor nanocrystals through amine-promoted kinetic process.

In the conventional procedure of the preparation of aqueous semiconductor nanocrystals (NCs), the growth of NCs was mainly through the thermodynamics-favored Ostwald ripening process. It required additional energy to promote NC growth, such as reflux, hydrothermal method, microwave irradiation, and sonochemical synthesis. Energy-promoted growth usually led to the decomposition of mercapto-ligands and therewith decreased the quality of NCs. Consequently, in this study, the growth of aqueous semiconductor NCs was designed through an amine-promoted kinetic process, which efficiently shortened the growth duration and avoided the decomposition of ligands, thus providing a universal method for preparing various aqueous binary and ternary NCs.