Optical Properties of Silica-Encapsulated ZnSe Nanocrystals Prepared with Water-in-Oil Microemulsions

Abstract

Silica-encapsulated ZnSe nanocrystals (NCs) were prepared by a safe and simple synthesis method, utilizing a sodium bis (2-ethylhexyl) sulfosuccinate (AOT)/water/cyclohexane microemulsion system and characterized by UV-vis analysis, photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopy, and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). For the encapsulations, two reverse micellar solutions [one for tetraethyl orthosilicate (TEOS) and the other for ZnSe] containing different water volumes were employed. The size of silica particles containing ZnSe NCs could be controlled from 13-37 nm by varying the water content W (W = [H2O]/[AOT]). On the other hand, the size of encapsulated ZnSe NCs was almost unchanged (about 2.5 nm) even though the size of the silica particles was increased. At W = 7, the maximum PL efficiency of 6% was obtained and the photostability was increased markedly after ZnSe NCs were encapsulated by silica. (C) 2013 The Japan Society of Applied Physics