Inorganic clusters as single-source precursors for preparation of CdSe, ZnSe, and CdSe/ZnS nanomaterials

Molecular inorganic clusters, which are stable under ambient conditions, can be used as convenient single-source precursors for controlled preparation of 2-9-nm CdSe and CdSe/ ZnS nanocrystals and 2-5-nm nanocrystals of ZnSe. The use of a cluster-based single-source precursor allows nanomaterial growth to be initiated at low temperature without the pyrolytic step for nucleus formation traditionally required for lyothermal growth processes. The elimination of the pyrolytic step allows greater synthetic control, slow thermodynamic growth at lower temperatures, high crystallinity, and reaction scalability (> 50 g/L) while maintaining size dispersity at similar to5%.