Sensitive surface states and their passivation mechanism in CdS quantum dots

We report on phase sensitive surface states of CdS quantum dots (QDs), where it is noticed that a simple phase change from dispersion to solid has shown significant influence on the emission spectrum. As the solvent evaporates from the dispersion, apparently yellow dispersion transforms into a white light emitter because of the conformal changes in the polymer that surrounds the QDs. In turn, these changes catalyze the emission from three specific wavelengths in the blue region of the spectrum, shifting the surface defects closer to the conduction band of CdS. In the phase change from dispersion to solid, flexible and dangling polymer chains are transformed into rigid moieties that can be treated as a modified chemical environment. Furthermore, to ascertain the origin of the new emission lines, we have studied a dipole interaction-based passivation mechanism between QDs and the polymer. The proposed mechanism may be valuable for designing future QD-based fluorophores and explains the sensitivity of the surface states in the case of CdS. © 2013 American Chemical Society.