Rational development of new phosphine telluride precursors for the synthesis of telluride quantum dots

A series of phosphine tellurides with various electronic natures and steric hindrances were prepared. The solutions of these reagents were investigated by 31P/125Te NMR. Quantum chemical calculations were applied for the investigation of the stability of the monomers and complexes with a second phosphine using the DFT method. A good match between the reactivity in the nanocrystal synthesis and the NMR/DFT results was observed. Finally, we developed a tricyclohexylphosphine telluride reagent that is easier to handle and gives highly reproducible results in the synthesis of telluride nanocrystals than most currently applied tellurium solutions in trioctylphosphine (TOP-Te). The solvent effects, Hg:Te ratio and temperature dependences were studied for tricyclohexylphosphine telluride in the synthesis of HgTe quantum dots. The developed reagent was highly efficient in the synthesis of several telluride nanocrystals, namely CdTe, PbTe and ZnTe.