Hello everybody
I have synthesized metal oxide quantum dots by hydrothermal route in the presence of oleylamine and 1-octadecene. After the reaction, a creamy paste kind of material was obtained. I washed this with excess acetone and centrifuged, retrieved the precipitates followed by drying at 55 degree C overnight in vacuum oven. When i checked the XRD of the dried white powder I found many unknown peaks at theta value 15-20 degree with broad peaks of TiO2 anatase as well. I wonder these must be the organic impurities. Can someone guide me how to get rid of these organic impurities? Please find attached the XRD data.
PS: The paper i followed to synthesize these quantum dots have reported very decent XRD data but in my case it isn't. Its TiO2 quantum dots
Thank you all.
The organic molecules attached to the nanoparticles are in general difficult to eliminate. If you need absolutely no organic coating, I suggest to wash with hot acetone 2-3 times.
I find acetone 'bad' for washing quantum dots(my QDs usually crash out in solution). I usually synthesize my particles in octadecene and oleylamine and wash them with the mixture of toluene and isopropanol (1:2). It's hard to get rid of organic solvents completely and if you wash them in excess they change their morphology especially nanorods.
Thank you for your suggestion. Later, I tried calcination at high temperature and it seems from the XRD the organic impurities have been removed.
you can wash with acetone and hexane 3:1, in a ultrasonic bath, four, five times or even more, less solvent more washes.
I use hexane, acetone and ethanol for nanoparticles.
I am not sure about quantum dots.
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