Metallic contamination was key to the discovery of semiconductor nanowires, but today it stands in the way of their adoption by the semiconductor industry. This is because many of the metallic catalysts required for nanowire growth are not compatible with standard CMOS (complementary metal oxide semiconductor) fabrication processes. Nanowire synthesis with those metals that are CMOS compatible,...

Semiconductor crystals smaller than about 10 nm, known as quantum dots, have properties that differ from large samples, including a bandgap that becomes larger for smaller particles. These properties create several applications for quantum dots, including efficient solar cells and qubits for quantum computing. Various synthesis procedures have been proposed and implemented, including chemical s...

This Feature Article provides a brief overview of the latest development and emerging new synthesis solution strategies for II–VI semiconducting nanomaterials and inorganic-organic semiconductor hybrid materials. Research on the synthesis of II–VI semiconductor nanomaterials and inorganic–organic hybrid semiconducting materials via solution strategies has made great progress in the past few yea...

Chalcogenide semiconductor quantum dots are emerging as promising nanomaterials due to their size tunable optoelectronic properties. The commercial synthesis and their subsequent integration for practical uses have, however, been contorted largely due to the toxicity and cost issues associated with the present chemical synthesis protocols. Accordingly, there is an immediate need to develop alte...

Foreign element dopant-free Ionic liquid-based synthesis can shift the band edges of a semiconductor.

Here we report a biomimetic method to synthesize core-shell CdSe/ZnS semiconductor nanocrystals using a bi-functional peptide; the resulting nanocrystals had a defect free crystallinity and a clearly observed core-shell structure; the results are significant as this is the first report of core-shell semiconductor nanocrystal synthesis using a peptide template.

We report on the first synthesis of a heterostructured semiconductor tetrapod from CdSe@CdS that carries a single dipolar nanoparticle tip from a core-shell colloid of Au@Co. A four-step colloidal total synthesis was developed, where the key step in the synthesis was the selective deposition of a single AuNP tip onto a CdSe@CdS tetrapod under UV-irradiation. Synthetic accessibility to this dipo...

We propose a novel semiconductor compatible path for nano-graphene synthesis using precursors containing C-Br bonding and liquid catalyst. The unique combination of CBr4 as precursor and Ga as catalyst leads to efficient C precipitation at a synthesis temperature of 200 °C or lower. The non-wetting nature of liquid Ga on tested substrates limits nano-scale graphene to form on Ga droplets and su...