Magister Scientiae - MSc (Chemistry) / Although cadmium and lead chalcogenide quantum dot have excellent optical and photoluminescent
properties that are highly favorable for biological applications, there still exists increasing concerns
due to the toxicity of these metals. We, therefore, report the synthesis of new aqueous soluble IrSe
quantum dot at room temperature utilizing a bottom-up wet chemistry approach. NaHSe and H2IrCl6
were utilized as the Se and Ir source, respectively. High-resolution transmission electron microscopy
reveals that the synthesized 3MPA-IrSe Qd are 3 nm in diameter. The characteristics and properties
of the IrSe Qd are investigated utilizing, Selected Area electron diffraction, ATR- Fourier Transform
Infra-Red Spectroscopy, Energy Dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, Photoluminescence, Cyclic
Voltammetry and chronocoulometry. A 3 fold increase in the optical band gap of IrSe quantum dot in
comparison to reported bulk IrSe is observed consistent with the effective mass approximation theory
for semiconductor materials of particles sizes < 10 nm. The PL emission of the IrSe quantum dot is at
519 nm. Their electro-activity is studied on gold electrodes and exhibit reduction and oxidation at -
107 mV and +641 mV, with lowered reductive potentials. The synthesized quantum dot are suitable
for low energy requiring electrochemical applications such as biological sensors and candidates for
further investigation as photoluminescent biological labels.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:uwc/oai:etd.uwc.ac.za:11394/6424 |
| Date | January 2018 |
| Creators | Nxusani, Ezo |
| Contributors | Iwuoha, Emmanuel I |
| Publisher | University of the Western Cape |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Rights | University of the Western Cape |
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