Fluid phase endocytic uptake of external solutes in plant cells was further substantiated using artificial polystyrene nano-spheres (40 nm) and CdSe/ZnS quantum dots (20 nm). Both types of artificial nano-particles were taken up by sycamore-cultured cells. However, whereas polystyrene nano-spheres were delivered to the central vacuole, CdSe/ZnS nano-dots were sequestered into cytoplasmic vesicu...

Semiconducting organic-inorganic nanocomposites comprising the conjugated polymer poly(3-hexylthiophene) (P3HT) in intimate contact with CdSe nanocrystals were crafted by exploiting rationally designed P3HT-grafted cadmium precursors (i.e., Cd-P3HT complexes). The bifunctional ligand 4-bromobenzyl phosphonic acid (BPA-Br) that possesses two terminal functional groups at each end was employed, e...

In this report, we synthesize and characterize the structural and optical properties of novel heterostructures composed of (i) semiconducting nanocrystalline CdSe quantum dots (QDs) coupled with (ii) both oneand zero-dimensional (1D and 0D) motifs of self-activated luminescent CaWO4 metal oxides. Specifically, ∼4 nm CdSe QDs have been anchored onto (i) high-aspect ratio 1D nanowires, measuring ...

Colloidal CdSe nanocrystals ~NCs! with high photoluminescent quantum yield are fabricated by a method adopting a large initial Se:Cd ratio of the precursors in the solution. X-ray diffraction and Raman measurements confirm that there exists lattice contraction in the free-standing wurtzite CdSe NCs. The lattice contraction indicates the occurrence of surface optimization/reconstruction during t...

The tapered CdS nanobelts and CdSe nanowires were prepared by hydrogen-assisted thermal evaporation method. Different supersaturation leads to two different kinds of 1D nanostructures. The PL measurements recorded from the as-prepared tapered CdS nanobelts and CdSe nanowires show only a bandgap emission with relatively narrow full-width half maximum, which means that they possess good optical p...

Thin film CdTe superstrate solar cells have been fabricated by sputtering starting from CdS/CdSe front layers deposited on transparent conductor coated glass. The performance of such devices is sensitive to the fabrication details including temperature-time profile, which leads CdSe/CdTe interdiffusion and formation a CdTe1-xSex bandgap-graded absorber. Mapping spectroscopic ellipsometry (M-SE)...

a r t i c l e i n f o This letter demonstrates the use of one of the nucleobases, 'cytosine' as a new capping agent in controlling the size of the nanoparticles. A size dependent blue shift in optical absorption with enhanced luminescence is observed. Since the calculated density of states do not show any change in the band gap of as-prepared quantum dots after capping, the observed blue shift ...

Blinking of zinc blende CdSe-based core/shell nanocrystals is studied as a function of shell materials and surface ligands. CdSe/ZnS, CdSe/ZnSe/ZnS and CdSe/CdS/ZnS core/shell nanocrystals are prepared by colloidal synthesis and six monolayers of larger bandgap shell materials are grown over the CdSe core. Organic-soluble nanocrystals covered with stearate are made water-soluble by ligand excha...

Two-dimensional (2D) colloidal anisotropic CdSe nanoplatelets (NPLs) have attracted a great deal of attraction within recent years. Their strong thickness-dependent absorption and emission spectra exhibit significant differences from those of other shaped CdSe nanocrystals (NCs) due to a unique atomically flat morphology. Based on their dielectric confinement effect and the large confinement en...

Cd-rich CdSe nanocrystals below a critical size, under illumination, catalyze CO2 fixation, but bulk CdSe surfaces do not. We report first-principles calculations in which we determine the roles of faceting, deviations from stoichiometry, photoexcitation, and electron confinement, and the specific physics of the nanoscale. We further establish that catalysis does not occur at the nanocrystal su...