Premium
Formation of Crystalline CdSe Particles from a Single‐Source‐Precursor according to Ostwald's Rule
Author(s) -
Erk Christoph,
Rohner Christian,
Schlecht Sabine
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
zeitschrift für anorganische und allgemeine chemie
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.354
H-Index - 66
eISSN - 1521-3749
pISSN - 0044-2313
DOI - 10.1002/zaac.200800397
Subject(s) - wurtzite crystal structure , metastability , ostwald ripening , materials science , crystallography , annealing (glass) , chemical engineering , hexagonal crystal system , chemistry , nanotechnology , metallurgy , organic chemistry , engineering
The formation of crystalline CdSe particles in the thermal degradation of Cd(SePh) 2 ·TMEDA (TMEDA = tetramethylethylenediamine) as a single‐source‐precursor was investigated by in‐situ powder X‐ray diffraction. It was shown that the primary grains were formed in the cubic zinc blende modification. After an increase in particle size by further annealing a phase transition to the thermodynamically favored hexagonal wurtzite type was detected. This behaviour indicates that, according to Ostwald's rule, the primary grains consist of the less stable polymorph due to the lower activation barrier of its formation. When the volume energy of the particles gets dominant over the surface energy, the metastable form is transformed and the system adopts the modification of lowest energy.