Synthesis of low-oxide blue luminescent alkyl-functionalized silicon nanoparticles with no nitrogen containing surfactant

Of ever growing interest in the fields of physical chemistry and materials science, silicon nanoparticles show a great deal of potential. Methods for their synthesis are, however, often hazardous, expensive or otherwise impractical. In the literature, there is a safe, fast and cheap inverse micelle-based method for the production of alkyl-functionalized blue luminescent silicon nanoparticles, which nonetheless found limitations, due to undesirable Si-alkoxy and remaining Si–H functionalization. In the following work, these problems are addressed, whereby an optimisation of the reaction mechanism encourages more desirable capping, and the introduction of alcohol is replaced by the use of anhydrous copper (II) chloride. The resulting particles, when compared with their predecessors through a myriad of spectroscopic techniques, are shown to have greatly reduced levels of ‘undesirable’ capping, with a much lower surface oxide level; whilst also maintaining long-term air stability, strong photoluminescence and high yields.