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Ultra-stable nanoparticles of CdSe revealed from mass spectrometry

Nature Materials volume 3, pages 99–102 (2004)Cite this article

Abstract

Nanoparticles under a few nanometres in size have structures and material functions that differ from the bulk because of their distinct geometrical shapes and strong quantum confinement. These qualities could lead to unique device applications. Our mass spectral analysis of CdSe nanoparticles reveals that (CdSe)33 and (CdSe)34 are extremely stable: with a simple solution method, they grow in preference to any other chemical compositions to produce macroscopic quantities. First-principles calculations predict that these are puckered (CdSe)28-cages, with four- and six-membered rings based on the highly symmetric octahedral analogues of fullerenes, accommodating either (CdSe)5 or (CdSe)6 inside to form a three-dimensional network with essentially heteropolar sp3-bonding. This is in accordance with our X-ray and optical analyses. We have found similar mass spectra and atomic structures in CdS, CdTe, ZnS and ZnSe, demonstrating that mass-specified and macroscopically produced nanoparticles, which have been practically limited so far to elemental carbon1, can now be extended to a vast variety of compound systems.

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Figure 1: Time-of-flight mass spectra of positive ions.
Figure 2: Optical absorption spectra at room temperature.
Figure 3: X-ray analysis of (CdSe)33 and (CdSe)34 structures.
Figure 4: Structures of the (CdSe)n core–cage nanoparticles calculated to be most stable, viewed down a threefold symmetry axis.
Figure 5: Calculated binding energies.

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Acknowledgements

The authors are indebted to M.Tachiki, Y.Nishina, K.Suzuki, A.Inoue, K.Sumiyama, T.Ohsuna and J. R. Anderson for discussions and comments.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Center for Interdisciplinary Research, Tohoku University, Sendai, 980-8578, Japan

    Atsuo Kasuya, Rajaratnam Sivamohan, Yurii A. Barnakov, Igor M. Dmitruk, Volodymyr R. Romanyuk, Vijay Kumar, Sergiy V. Mamykin & Vijayaraghavan Sundararajan

  2. Graduate School of Environmental Studies, Tohoku University, Sendai, 980-8579, Japan

    Takashi Nirasawa, Kazuyuki Tohji, Balachandran Jeyadevan & Kozo Shinoda

  3. Bruker Daltonics K.K., Kanagawa-ku, Yokohama, 221-0022, Japan

    Takashi Nirasawa & Toshiji Kudo

  4. Institute for Materials Research, Tohoku University, Sendai, 980-8577, Japan

    Vijay Kumar, Rodion V. Belosludov & Yoshiyuki Kawazoe

  5. Dr Vijay Kumar Foundation, Chennai, 600 078, India

    Vijay Kumar

  6. Department of Physics, Tohoku University, Sendai, 980-8578, Japan

    Osamu Terasaki & Zheng Liu

  7. Centre for Development of Advanced Computing, Pune, 411 007, India

    Vijayaraghavan Sundararajan

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  1. Atsuo Kasuya
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Correspondence to Atsuo Kasuya.

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Kasuya, A., Sivamohan, R., Barnakov, Y. et al. Ultra-stable nanoparticles of CdSe revealed from mass spectrometry. Nature Mater 3, 99–102 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1038/nmat1056

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