Factors governing the quality of aqueous CdTe nanocrystals: Calculations and experiment

A systematic experimental study of the CdTe nanocrystals' synthetic procedure supported by a calculation of the concentration of various Cd-thiolate complexes during the synthesis as a function of pH, concentration of Cd-salt, and the concentration ratio of Cd to ligand is reported. A numerical calculation demonstrated a clear correlation between the concentration of CdL (where L is ([SC[H.sub.2]Coo].sup.2-] in the initial solution and the photoluminescence quantum efficiency of the resulting CdTe nanocrystals.