Self-replication fabrication of ligand-free CdSe quantum dots on a nanofiber microreactor via a solid-liquid interfacial method

In this work, we present the self-replication fabrication of oil-soluble and ligand-free CdSe quantum dots (QDs) via a "solid-liquid interface" method using electrospun nanofibrous mats as the microreactor. The electrospun sodium alginate-based nanofibers with the cadmium source act as the solid phase, while octadecene containing selenium in trioctylphosphine as the Se source serves as the liquid phase. After reacting on the nanofibrous microreactor, the as-prepared CdSe QDs without using any ligands are released from the microreactor, presenting a monodispersion with a mean diameter of ∼3 nm along with good fluorescent properties (λ_em = 620 nm). ZnSe QDs could also be prepared in the same manner, indicating this self-replication method to have wide suitability for the construction of QDs via this solid-liquid interface microreactor. For practice, we further applied the CdSe QDs as fluorescent inks for versatile printing of luminescent patterns toward anticounterfeit and optoelectronic applications.