Sizing Curve, Absorption Coefficient, Surface Chemistry, and Aliphatic Chain Structure of PbTe Nanocrystals

For colloidal semiconductor nanocrystals (NCs), the knowledge of the chemical structure and the size-dependent optical properties is of crucial importance, both from a practical and fundamental perspective. Here, we report the basic properties of PbTe NCs in order to complement the already existing knowledge on PbS and PbSe NCs. The band gap versus NC diameter (sizing) curve was determined by combining transmission electron microscopy with absorption spectroscopy; the energy of the primary optical absorption follows 1/d dependence with the diameter. The lead content of the NCs was determined with inductive coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry and the relative tellurium content with energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy. Combining these results yields a relation for the intrinsic absorption coefficient, which is independent of the NC size at 3.1 eV. The PbTe NCs are stabilized by Pb(oleate)₂, but different from PbS NCs, oleate is predominantly bound in a chelating bidentate coordination. Besides that, we analyzed the structure of the aliphatic chains on all lead chalcogenide NCs and showed that the aliphatic chains are partly crystalline near the core and more liquid-like at the solvent side.