The role of particle morphology in interfacial energy transfer in CdSe/CdS heterostructure nanocrystals

An Upside of Asymmetry Advances in synthetic techniques have enabled the preparation of nanometer-scale semiconductors in a wide range of precise shapes and sizes, including core-shell morphologies that layer several different materials in the same particle. Such two-in-one motifs are promising for light-harvesting applications because they allow optically induced charge separation across the internal interface. Borys et al. (p. 1371 ) studied a series of rod-shaped cadmium sulfide–cadmium selenide hybrid particles using single-particle–resolved optical spectroscopy and found that smooth versus bulbous geometries produced distinct emission spectra. Further analysis of more complex, tetrapodal particles (with four arms aligned tetrahedrally) suggested that nonuniform geometries facilitate interfacial charge transfer by reducing the likelihood of electronic band misalignment.