Site equivalent all Apex 1 nm-particle of CdSe preferentially grown in solution

A 1-nm particle of CdSe showing a sharp photoabsorption peak at 350 nm has been selectively synthesized as a single species in solution. Solid NMR spectra of both atoms show a single narrow peak of large chemical shift anisotropy and asymmetry compared with the essentially isotropic bulk CdSe. This result indicates that this extremely small 1-nm particle has most of its atoms at the surface, and the atoms are deformed from the sp(3) configuration of the bulk fragment into an assembly consisting entirely of apexes of equivalent symmetry that are particularly stable and preferentially grown. This observed selective stability presents the possibility of growing 1-nm particles with an atomic monostructure in macroscopic quantities.