TY - JOUR

T1 - Self-Assembly of Semiconductor Nanoplatelets into Stacks Directly in Aqueous Solution

AU - Graf, Rebecca T.

AU - Tran, Kevin

AU - Rosebrock, Marina

AU - Borg, Hadir

AU - Schlenkrich, Jakob

AU - Lübkemann-Warwas, Franziska

AU - Renz, Franz

AU - Dorfs, Dirk

AU - Bigall, Nadja C.

N1 - Funding Information: This work was supported by the German Research Foundation (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, DFG) under Germany's excellence strategy within the cluster of excellence PhoenixD (EXC 2122, project ID 390833453) and the grand BI 1708/4‐3. R.T.G. and K.T. thank the Hannover School for Nanotechnology (hsn) for funding. D.D. would like to acknowledge the support by the German Research foundation (DFG research Grant DO 1580/5‐1). The authors are thankful to the Laboratory of Nano and Quantum Engineering (LNQE) for providing the TEM facilities. Furthermore, the authors thank the German Research Foundation (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, DFG) for funding the XPS facilities (INST 187/789‐1).

PY - 2023/12/13

Y1 - 2023/12/13

N2 - Since their discovery, cadmium chalcogenide nanoplatelets (NPLs) gained a lot of interest, not only due to their beneficial characteristic, but also because of their high affinity to self-assemble into ordered stacks. Interestingly, the stacks showed both the properties of the single NPLs and new collective features, such as charge carrier transport within the stacks. Until now, the stacking was, to the best of the knowledge, only performed in non-polar media mostly through the addition of antisolvents with higher polarity. Due to the fact, that many applications (e.g., photocatalysis) or procedures (such as gelation) occur in water, a route to self-assemble stacks directly in aqueous solution is needed. In this work a new synthesis route is thus introduced to produce stacks directly in aqueous media. The NPLs are phase transferred with mercaptocarboxylic acids to an aqueous KOH solution followed by an addition of less polar antisolvents to initialize the stacking (e.g., tetrahydrofuran). Furthermore, a mechanism of the stacking as well as four possible driving forces involved in the process are proposed supported by transmission electron microscopy, dynamic light scattering, infrared spectroscopy, and x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy measurements.

AB - Since their discovery, cadmium chalcogenide nanoplatelets (NPLs) gained a lot of interest, not only due to their beneficial characteristic, but also because of their high affinity to self-assemble into ordered stacks. Interestingly, the stacks showed both the properties of the single NPLs and new collective features, such as charge carrier transport within the stacks. Until now, the stacking was, to the best of the knowledge, only performed in non-polar media mostly through the addition of antisolvents with higher polarity. Due to the fact, that many applications (e.g., photocatalysis) or procedures (such as gelation) occur in water, a route to self-assemble stacks directly in aqueous solution is needed. In this work a new synthesis route is thus introduced to produce stacks directly in aqueous media. The NPLs are phase transferred with mercaptocarboxylic acids to an aqueous KOH solution followed by an addition of less polar antisolvents to initialize the stacking (e.g., tetrahydrofuran). Furthermore, a mechanism of the stacking as well as four possible driving forces involved in the process are proposed supported by transmission electron microscopy, dynamic light scattering, infrared spectroscopy, and x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy measurements.

KW - aqueous media

KW - nanoplatelets

KW - self-assembly

KW - stacking

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85170680129&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1002/admi.202300408

DO - 10.1002/admi.202300408

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:85170680129

VL - 10

JO - Advanced materials interfaces

JF - Advanced materials interfaces

SN - 2196-7350

IS - 35

M1 - 2300408

ER -