Green chemistry for large-scale synthesis of semiconductor quantum dots

Large-scale synthesis of semiconductor nanocrystals or quantum dots (QDs) with high concentration and high yield through simultaneously increasing the precursor concentration was introduced. This synthetic route conducted in diesel has produced gram-scale CdSe semiconductor quantum dots (In optimal scale-up synthetic condition, the one-pot yield of QDs is up to 9.6g). The reaction has been conducted in open air and at relatively low temperature at 190-230°C in the absence of expensive organic phosphine ligands, aliphatic amine and octadecene, which is really green chemistry without high energy cost for high temperature reaction and unessential toxic chemicals except for Cd, which is the essential building block for QDs.