A new two‐phase route to cadmium sulfide quantum dots using amphiphilic hyperbranched polymers as unimolecular nanoreactors.

A new two‐phase route was developed to prepare monodisperse cadmium sulfide (CdS) quantum dots (QDs) with a narrow size distribution. In a two‐phase system, chloroform and water were used as separate solvents for palmitoyl chloride functionalized hyperbranched polyamidoamine (HPAMAM‐PC) and cadmium acetate/sodium sulfide, respectively. The amphiphilic HPAMAM‐PC, with a hydrophilic dendritic core and hydrophobic arms, formed stable unimolecular micelles in chloroform and was used to encapsulate aqueous Cd2誉. After the reaction with S2−ions from the aqueous phase, monodisperse and uniform‐sized CdS QDs stabilized by HPAMAM‐PC unimolecular micelles were obtained. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 120:991–997, 2011 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]