The heat-up synthesis of colloidal nanocrystals

The successful transition of any nanocrystal-based product from the research phase to the commercial arena hinges on the ability to produce the required nanomaterial on large scales. The synthesis of colloidal nanocrystals using a heat-up (non-injection) method is a reliable means to achieve high quality nanomaterials on large scales with little or no batch-to-batch variation. In this class of synthesis precursors are heated within a reaction medium to induce a chemical reaction that yields monomer for nucleation and growth. Use of the heat-up technique circumvents the pitfalls of mixing time and poor heat management inherent to classical “hot-injection” methods. In heat-up syntheses monomer is produced in a more continuous fashion during the heating stage, making it more difficult to separate the nucleation and growth stages of the reaction, a factor that is conventionally considered detrimental toward achieving homogeneous colloidal dispersions. However, through the judicious selection of precursors, st...