A top-down strategy towards monodisperse colloidal lead sulphide quantum dots

Monodisperse colloidal quantum dots with size dispersions <10% are of great importance in realizing functionality manipulation, as well as building advanced devices, and have been normally synthesized via 'bottom-up' colloidal chemistry. Here we report a facile and environmentally friendly 'top-down' strategy towards highly crystalline monodisperse colloidal PbS quantum dots with controllable sizes and narrow dispersions 5.5%<9.1%, based on laser irradiation of a suspension of polydisperse PbS nanocrystals with larger sizes. The colloidal quantum dots demonstrate size-tunable near-infrared photoluminescence, and self-assemble into well-ordered two-dimensional or three-dimensional superlattices due to the small degree of polydispersity and surface capping of 1-dodecanethiol, not only serving as a surfactant but also a sulphur source. The acquisition of monodisperse colloidal PbS quantum dots is ascribed to both the quantum-confinement effect of quantum dots and the size-selective-vaporization effect of the millisecond pulse laser with monochromaticity and low intensity.