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Lewis Acid Protection: A Method Toward Synthesizing Phase Transferable Luminescent Silicon Nanocrystals
Author(s) -
Thiessen Alyxandra N.,
Purkait Tapas K.,
Faramus Angelique,
Veinot Jonathan G. C.
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
physica status solidi (a)
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.532
H-Index - 104
eISSN - 1862-6319
pISSN - 1862-6300
DOI - 10.1002/pssa.201700620
Subject(s) - surface modification , silicon , amidine , nanocrystal , photoluminescence , luminescence , materials science , nanotechnology , polymer , phase (matter) , lewis acids and bases , chemical engineering , combinatorial chemistry , chemistry , catalysis , optoelectronics , organic chemistry , engineering , composite material
Silicon nanocrystals exhibit optoelectronic properties that are favorable for applications such as sensing and biological imaging. Synthesizing a stimuli responsive material with controlled hydrophilicity can benefit these applications. One of the most promising surface species for inducing reversible control of hydrophilicity contains amidine functional groups; unfortunately, this functionality will also bind to the nanocrystal surface and influence the photoluminescence of the material. To combat these limitations, a Lewis acid protection method has been developed to prevent the nitrogen atoms from attaching to the silicon surface for the functionalization of amidine terminated silicon nanocrystals.