Nanoparticles, nanocrystals, and quantum dots What they are, why they’re interesting, and what we can do with them J. Nadeau, Department of Biomedical Engineering
[email protected] Colloidal nanocrystals of different materials… …And different geometries From: Science. 2005 January 28; 307(5709): 538544. Medieval Nanotechnology! The colors in some stained- glass windows from medieval cathedrals are probably due to nanocrystals of compouds of Zn, Cd, S, and Se. History of nanoparticles 1980 Ekimov observed quantum confinement on a sample of glass containing PbS. 1982 Brus L.’s group conducted CdS colloid preparation and investigation of band-edge luminescence properties. 1993 Murray C., Norris D., Bawendi M., Synthesis and Characterization of Nearly Monodisperse CdE (E=S, Se, Te) Semiconductor Nano- crystallites. 1995 Hines M., Guyot-Sionnest P., reported synthesis and Characterization of Strongly Luminescent ZnS-Capped CdSe Nanocrystals 1998 Alivisatos and Nie independently reported Bio-application for core shell dots. 2001 Nie’s group described Quantum dot-tagged microbeads for multiplexed optical coding of biomolecules. 2003 T. Sargent at UOT observed electroluminescence spanning 1000 – 1600 nm originating from PbS nanocrystals embedded in a polymer matrix. What is a quantum dot? • Synthesis • Quantum mechanics • Optical properties WhatWhat isis itit goodgood for?for? ••InterestingInteresting physicsphysics ••ApplicationsApplications inin optoelectronicsoptoelectronics ••ApplicationsApplications inin biologybiology Synthesis Quick