Nucleation and growth kinetics of CdSe nanocrystals in octadecene

Abstract

The growth kinetics of CdSe nanocrystals nucleated from TOPSe and cadmium oleate were investigated in octadecene, a non-coordinating solvent. The effects of temperature and the oleic acid concentration on the kinetics of both nucleation and particle growth were investigated. It was found that increasing oleic acid concentrations led to smaller numbers of nuclei, smaller initial nuclei size, and larger final particle sizes. The rate constant for steady-state CdSe deposition was found to be 2.2 × 10-6 cm s-1 at ≈ 265°C, far slower than the diffusion limit. The number of growing particles remained constant following the initial nucleation step. The radius of the primary CdSe nuclei varied from ..