One-Pot Synthesis of Dual-Stabilizer-Capped CdTe Nanocrystals with Efficient Near-Infrared Photoluminescence and Electrochemiluminescence

CdTe nanocrystals (NCs) are promising near-infrared (NIR) emitter candidates. A one-pot synthetic strategy has been developed for high-quality NIR-emitting CdTe NCs with mercaptopropionic acid and sodium hexametaphosphate as dual stabilizers. The dual-stabilizer-capped CdTe NCs displayed efficient photoluminescence (PL) between the visible and near-infrared region (533-778 nm) with a quantum yield of up to 47%. XRD, XPS, and photoluminescence spectra were employed to characterize the structure and optical features of these samples. Moreover, the NIR-emitting CdTe NCs also displayed strong band-gap electrochemiluminescence in the NIR region, indicating that this strategy can be used to synthesize NCs with both efficient fluorescence and electrochemiluminescence emissions in the NIR region.