Resonance Raman Investigation of the Interaction between Aromatic Dithiocarbamate Ligands and CdSe Quantum Dots

Ligand exchange with phenyl dithiocarbamates is known to significantly red-shift the lowest excitonic transition of CdSe quantum dots. Here we show that the resonance Raman spectra of CdSe quantum dots treated with p-methoxyphenyldithiocarbamate are nearly identical to those of CdSe quantum dots to which thin CdS shells have been added by standard synthetic methods. We conclude that the dithiocarbamate ligands decompose and react with Cd2+ not fully removed following the synthesis to form CdS on the surface of the quantum dots. This red-shifts the absorption spectrum primarily by delocalizing the electron into the CdS shell. These results are consistent with the common use of aliphatic dithiocarbamates as single-source precursors for adding ZnS or CdS shells to CdSe quantum dots and with the recent demonstration through NMR that phenyldithiocarbamate ligands decompose during nanocrystal ligand exchange.