article · RSC Advances
Colloidal nanocrystals offer useful functionality across diverse applications. Incorporating cation dopants into the nanocrystal matrix improves optical, electrical, and magnetic properties, provided that dopant quantity and spatial distribution are controlled to prevent clustering. Characterisation methods such as X-ray diffraction, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, and X-ray absorption spectroscopy provide details on lattice parameters, chemical states, and local coordination environments. High-speed four-dimensional scanning transmission electron microscopy can locate and map dopants while generating atomic-resolution images from diffraction datasets. Achieving balanced reactivity between host materials and dopants requires optimising reaction conditions, reaction duration, and ligand choice, with hard and soft acids and bases principles assisting in solubility management. Furthermore, assembling colloidal nanocrystals into secondary architectures improves mass and ion transport, yielding functional characteristics that surpass those of the separate starting components.
Precise control over the chemical composition and atomic architecture of nanocrystals allows researchers to tailor functional material properties. Understanding how dopants integrate and distribute inside host matrices helps prevent structural defects such as particle clustering. Improved characterisation and assembly methods enable the design of advanced materials with enhanced transport and physical behaviours for broader technological development.
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Colloidal nanocrystals play a vital role in several applications. The doping of cations in the nanocrystal matrix enhances the optical, electrical, and magnetic properties. The number and well-defined distribution of the dopant are crucial to protect the nanocrystal from clustering. The XRD, XPS, and XAS instruments reveal the change in the lattice parameters, chemical states, and local coordination environment information. In addition of detecting the position and distribution of the dopant, the 4D-STEM detector mode gathers all types of real-space atomic-resolution images by collecting all diffraction datasets from each electron probe with high-speed and efficient detection. Dopant-host ligand type, reactions conditions, and reaction time optimization during synthesis are critical for the host and dopant reactivity balance. Pearson's hard/soft acids/bases theory would be a base for balancing the solubility of the dopant-host in the given solvents/surfactant. In addition, tuning the colloidal nanocrystals to secondary structures, which enhances the mass-/ions transport, can contribute a combination of properties that do not exist in the original constituents.
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DOI: 10.1039/d1ra09152b
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