Controlled Synthesis of Nanoscale CdTe Urchins

We presented a simple route to prepare nanoscale CdTe urchins in a tri-n-octylphosphine oxide(TOPO)system.CdTe urchins consisted of a core and several attached arms.The arms were ca.3 nm wide,and their lengths could be controlled with the reaction time.The authors investigated the optical absorption and structural properties of the prepared CdTe.The lengths of the arms could be tuned into CdTe nanourchins,which led to a change in the photophysical properties of the nanoscale CdTe urchins.The results,including transmission electron microscopy(TEM) and absorption spectra,indicated that mesoporous silica and aminopropyltriethoxysilane(APTES) contributed to the formation of nanoscale CdTe urchins.