Volume 222, 2020

Critical assessment of wet-chemical oxidation synthesis of silicon quantum dots

Abstract

Wet-chemical synthetic procedures are powerful strategies to afford fluorescent silicon quantum dots (Si QDs) in a versatile and scalable manner. However, development of Si QDs is still hampered by a lack of control over photoluminescence emission, in addition to synthesis and characterization complexities. The wet-chemical Si QD synthesis by oxidation of magnesium silicide (Mg2Si) with bromine (Br2) was revisited and a control reaction was carried out where the silicon source was omitted. Both reaction conditions resulted in substantial quantities of fluorescent material. Moreover, a comparative analysis of their optical properties (UV-vis/fluorescence) revealed no apparent differences. Other characterization techniques also confirmed the resemblance of the two materials as 1H NMR, FTIR and XPS spectra were nearly identical for both samples. Elemental analysis revealed the presence of only 2 wt% silicon in the Si QD sample. No evidence was found for the formation of significant amounts of Si QDs via this wet-chemical procedure.

Graphical abstract: Critical assessment of wet-chemical oxidation synthesis of silicon quantum dots

Associated articles

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Paper
Submitted
01 Oct 2019
Accepted
01 Nov 2019
First published
01 Nov 2019
This article is Open Access
Creative Commons BY-NC license

Faraday Discuss., 2020,222, 149-165

Critical assessment of wet-chemical oxidation synthesis of silicon quantum dots

Jonathan L. Wilbrink, C. Huang, K. Dohnalova and J. M. J. Paulusse, Faraday Discuss., 2020, 222, 149 DOI: 10.1039/C9FD00099B

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