Spectroscopic and electrochemical study of CdTe nanocrystals capped with thiol mixtures

Here we report the aqueous synthesis of CdTe nanocrystals capped with 3-mercaptopropionic acid (MPA) and the evaluation of the effect of mixing different thiols with MPA on the spectroscopic and electrochemical properties. Additional ligands were cysteine (CYS) and glutathione (GSH). CYS and GSH produce opposite effects on the photoluminescence quantum yield (QY) with a decrease and increase in QY in comparison to MPA, respectively. All samples exhibited monoexponential photoluminescence decays indicating the presence of high-quality nanocrystals. Electrochemical measurements evidenced the presence of several redox peaks and allowed the calculation of the electrochemical band gaps, which were in agreement with the values estimated from absorption spectra and reflected differences in nanocrystal size.