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Bandgap Tuning of Silicon Quantum Dots by Surface
Functionalization with Conjugated Organic Groups
Tianlei Zhou,*,†
Ryan T. Anderson,†,§
Huashan Li,‡
Jacob Bell,†
Yongan Yang,†
Brian P. Gorman,§,∥
Svitlana Pylypenko,†,§
Mark T. Lusk,‡
and Alan Sellinger*,†,§
†
Department of Chemistry and Geochemistry, ‡
Department of Physics, §
Materials Science Program, ∥
Metallurgical and Materials
Engineering, Colorado School of Mines, Golden, Colorado 80401, United States
*S Supporting Information
ABSTRACT: The quantum confinement and enhanced
optical properties of silicon quantum dots (SiQDs) make
them attractive as an inexpensive and nontoxic material for a
variety of applications such as light emitting technologies
(lighting, displays, sensors) and photovoltaics. However,
experimental demonstration of these properties and practical
application into optoelectronic devices have been limited as
SiQDs are generally passivated with covalently bound
insulating alkyl chains that limit charge transport. In this
work, we show that strategically designed triphenylamine-
based surface ligands covalently bonded to the SiQD surface
using conjugated vinyl connectivity results in a 70 nm red-
shifted photoluminescence relative to their decyl-capped control counterparts. This suggests that electron density from the SiQD
is delocalized into the surface ligands to effectively create a larger hybrid QD with possible macroscopic charge transport
properties.
KEYWORDS: Si quantum dots, type-II energy level aligned interface, band gap tuning, CT state, hydrosilylation
Q uantum dots (QDs) have enormous potential for a
variety of applications based on their unique properties
such as slow cooling of hot carriers, multiple-exciton
generation, tunable absorption/emission, and low-cost solution
processing possibilities.1−4
Of the many QD families studied to
date, silicon (Si)QDs are one of the most promising candidates
because of silicon’s relatively low cost, industrial maturity, high
earth abundance, and nontoxic/environmentally friendly
properties. As a result, SiQDs have significant advantages
over other promising QD materials based on relatively toxic
elements such as PbS(Se) and CdSe(Te).5−7
Similar to many
other QD materials, the SiQD optical gap can be tuned by their
size based on the quantum confinement effect. Examples of
SiQDs with tunable emission from blue to red have been
reported.7−11
Despite this, the absorption of SiQDs in the
visible spectrum is very weak due to their indirect band
structure.12
For example, the major absorption band of red
emitting SiQDs is located at the UV/near UV wavelength
region.13
This property would limit the absorption of visible
wavelength photons to yield photovoltaics with low power
conversion efficiencies.6,14−20
In general, SiQDs are prepared
with a surface of silicon hydride groups that will be quickly
oxidized to silicon hydroxyl/silicon oxide in the presence of
oxygen and/or water (ambient conditions).6,21,22
In order to
stabilize SiQDs, procedures have been developed to function-
alize the surface with groups that will protect from surface
oxidation and render the QDs soluble for solution process-
ing.16,17,23−36
Organic alkyl chains are one of the most common
groups used to functionalize SiQDs through the formation of
Si−C bonds using the hydrosilylation reaction of alkenes/
alkynes with the Si−H functionalized surface. To date, the
influence of alkyl chains on the optical properties of SiQDs is
very limited and only small changes have been reported.37−39
Ethyl termination of Si142 dots and allylamine termination of
Si35 dots were predicted to result in a gap reduction of 50
meV.37,39
In principle, alkyl chains have a minimal effect on the
optical gap of SiQDs because of their Type-I energy level
alignment and weak molecular orbital coupling to SiQDs
(Figure 1, left). In order to achieve a Type-II energy alignment
with SiQDs, it is important to have a direct low-energy
transition involving the highest occupied molecular orbital
(HOMO) of the organic ligand with the lowest unoccupied
molecular orbital (LUMO) of the SiQDs (Figure 1, right). This
was predicted by our previous theoretical study showing that a
Type-II aligned organic/SiQD system exhibited lower energy
and enhanced absorption resulting from direct excitation that
generates a charge transfer (CT) state.40
Besides the proper
Type-II energy alignment, the conjugated vinyl group that
covalently links the organic ligand and the SiQD is crucial in
achieving a directly generated CT state because of its ability to
Received: October 21, 2014
Revised: April 28, 2015
Letter
pubs.acs.org/NanoLett
© XXXX American Chemical Society A DOI: 10.1021/nl504051x
Nano Lett. XXXX, XXX, XXX−XXX
improve the molecular orbital overlap between the organic
ligand and the SiQD.40
To date we have found very few reports that link an aromatic
ligand to the SiQD using a vinyl linkage and none combining
computation and experimental results.4,41
However, the styryl
ligand considered was not designed to form a Type-II energy
alignment with SiQDs and only a slightly broadened PL was
observed; both Type-II energy alignment and conjugated
bridges are essential for effective tuning of SiQDs optical
properties by peripheral ligands.40
Reported here is the design and synthesis of 4-ethynyl-N,N-
bis(4-methoxyphenyl)aniline (MeOTPA) as the organic
molecule to functionalize SiQDs. The triphenylamine moiety
is a typical electron rich material that has a comparatively high-
lying HOMO level compared with many other organic
materials used for organic electronics devices. A para-
substitution of electron donating methoxy groups can further
raise the HOMO level of MeOTPA and make it high enough
(−4.46 eV, 278 nm) to form the Type-II energy alignment with
SiQDs. Furthermore, the hole transport properties of the
triphenylamine-based ligand may facilitate hole transport in the
double superexchange system previously reported by our
group.40,42
The terminal alkyne functional group was added
to the triphenylamine so as to form vinyl connective bridges
with the Si−H sites of the SiQD upon hydrosilylation
chemistry.
A theoretical study of the molecular orbital energy of
MeOTPA functionalized SiQDs was carried out based on the
time-dependent density functional theory (TDDFT). The
computational methodology is the same as that detailed in
our earlier study.40
A SiQD (Si849H344) with a diameter of 3.1
nm (Figure 2) was chosen as a model system. In the
computational study, only four MeOTPA molecules were
considered because minimal changes were observed in the
optoelectronic analysis of smaller dots using more than four
MeOTPA attachments. Specifically, changing the number of
MeOTPA ligands from 4 to 8, 12, and 16 did not significantly
change the absorption peaks although it does influence the
shape of the spectra at the low energy edge because of the
localization of low-energy orbitals. In addition, a comparison of
the optoelectronic properties of small dots with decyl and
hydride passivation gave almost identical results. This implies
that a direct comparison can be made between our computa-
tionally generated dots with hydrogen passivation and our
experimental setting in which decyl passivation is employed.
The computationally predicted influence of MeOTPA
functionalization is shown in Figure 2, where frontier orbitals
are shown for hydrogen (left) versus MeOTPA (right)
termination. The latter shows a significantly lower optical gap
of 1292 nm (0.96 eV) as compared with those having only
hydrogen termination (1033 nm, 1.20 eV). This 0.24 eV (259
nm) red shift is consistent with our earlier prediction of a Type-
II aligned organic/SiQD hybrid system.40
The results are
summarized in Table 1.
To experimentally verify our theoretical predictions, the
MeOTPA ligand was synthesized via a Sonogashira reaction of
trimethylsilylacetylene with 4-iodo-N,N-bis(4-methoxyphenyl)-
aniline followed by a potassium hydroxide removal of the
trimethylsilyl group to obtain the terminal alkyne (Figure 3a).
The decyl and MeOTPA functionalized SiQDs were prepared
using thermal hydrosilylation, (Figure 3b).6
After passivation by
MeOTPA or 1-decene, the resultant SiQDs became very
soluble in common solvents such as dichloromethane,
qualitatively indicating that surface functionalization had
occurred (Figure 3b).
FT-IR was used to follow the MeOTPA reaction on the
SiQD surface. In Supporting Information Figure S1a, the
successful preparation of MeOTPA functionalized SiQD is
suggested by the formation of -Si-CC- stretching bands at
1599 cm−1
, although this also overlaps with the aromatic −C
C− bonds from MeOTPA.4,41
Additional evidence comes from
the presence of aromatic C−H stretching bands around 3000
cm−1
and MeOTPA feature absorption at about 1500, 1240,
1035, and 825 cm−1
. Evidence of unreacted Si−H is shown in
the 2100 cm−1
region, which is not surprising as total ligand
coverage of the SiQD surface is unlikely due to steric issues and
is commonly seen in other SiQD hydrosilylation systems.
Furthermore, no CC−H stretch at 3283 cm−1
and CC at
2100 cm−1
(Supporting Information Figure S1b) are observed
when compared with MeOTPA starting materials as shown in
Supporting Information Figure S1b. The absence of MeOTPA
starting material also indicates the MeOTPA SiQDs have been
well purified. Supporting Information Figure S1c shows the FT-
IR of decyl-passivated SiQDs. The absorption bands at 2920,
1465, and 1378 cm−1
are features from the alkyl stretching and
Figure 1. Electron transition in Type-I (left) and Type-II (right)
molecular orbital energy level aligned organic functionalized SiQDs
hybrid systems.
Figure 2. HOMO (red) and LUMO (green) isosurfaces from TDDFT
analysis of a 3.1 nm Si849H344 QD capped by (left) only hydride and
(right) by hydride and four MeOTPA ligands. Isosurfaces are for a
fixed value of the absolute value of electron orbitals, 0.009 Å−3/2
.
Table 1. Theoretical Calculation of Molecular Orbital
Energy of Hydride Passivated, Decyl Passivated, MeOTPA
Functionalized SiQDs (3.1 nm) and MeOTPA Molecule
Based on Time Dependent Density Functional Theory
(TDDFT)
energy (eV) Si849H348 Si849H344 (MeOTPA)4 MeOTPA
HOMO −5.19 −4.89 −4.46
LUMO −4.00 −3.93 −2.10
optical gap 1.19 (1042 nm) 0.96 (1291 nm) 2.36 (525 nm)
Nano Letters Letter
DOI: 10.1021/nl504051x
Nano Lett. XXXX, XXX, XXX−XXX
B
deformation demonstrating surface alkylation of SiQDs. The
absence of −CC− stretch at 1641 cm−1
(Supporting
Information Figure S1d) also indicates that 1-decene has
been thoroughly removed during the purification process
despite also being used in large excess. As is the case for the
MeOTPA SiQDs, a minor and broad peak at 2088 cm−1
results
from unreacted Si−H on the SiQD surface. In the FT-IR of
many reported SiQDs passivated with alkyl chains, the intense
and structureless band around 1080−1090 cm−1
is commonly
ascribed to Si−O−Si from surface oxidation.43,44
A similar
relatively broad peak was also observed in our decyl-passivated
SiQDs at 1031 cm−1
that is quite different from the reported
values (>50 cm−1
). It has been reported that partial oxidation of
SiHx surfaces could shift the hydride stretching band to higher
energy with a characteristic stretch at 2250 cm−1
for O3Si−H,
while formation of Si−C bonds has been predicted to shift the
frequency to lower energy.41
It was also reported that the
vibration of Si−O not only appears at 1090 cm−1
, but also at
∼460 cm−1
with an intense but smaller band of 60% less in
absorption intensity.43
This could be very useful and
straightforward for the evaluation of the oxidation degree of
SiQDs. To make sure that the 460 cm−1
band can be used as
reference for our hybrid SiQDs, our hydride SiQDs were
intentionally oxidized by heating them in open air for 24 h, and
Figure 3. (a) The synthesis of MeOTPA ligand. (b) The preparation of hydride terminated SiQDs and MeOTPA functionalized SiQDs.
Nano Letters Letter
DOI: 10.1021/nl504051x
Nano Lett. XXXX, XXX, XXX−XXX
C
the FT-IR spectrum was subsequently investigated. As seen in
Supporting Information Figure S1e, the similar intense and
broad absorption band at 1081 cm−1
and the smaller band at
458 cm−1
were observed in such oxidized SiQDs, indicating the
reference absorption band around 460 cm−1
should be
applicable to our SiQDs as well. Thus, the absence of an
observable 460 cm−1
absorption band in the FT-IR spectra of
decyl and MeOTPA passivated SiQDs indicates there was no
significant oxidation in our materials. It also further confirms
that the 1031 cm−1
absorption band that we observed in our
SiQD materials is not from exhaustive oxidation but rather
suboxide formation.36
FT-IR of our starting hydride terminated
SiQDs are shown in Supporting Information Figure S1f
showing the characteristic Si−H at 2098 cm−1
. A small peak
around 1030 cm−1
is observed indicating surface suboxides.
Some C−H absorption bands are seen in the 3000 cm−1
region
from residual solvent when depositing the sample on the ATR
crystal. In both of our SiQD systems, we are not so concerned
with some oxidation on the surface as this will be inevitable in
practical applications. As shown in the next sections, the surface
oxidation does not seem to affect the new optoelectronic
properties associated with attaching our conjugated ligands.
Further evaluation of functionalized SiQDs was performed
using X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). The size of the
functionalized SiQDs is smaller than the sampling depth of
XPS, therefore XPS analysis provides bulk rather than surface
composition. SiQDs functionalized with MeOTPA show ∼72%
carbon, 14% silicon, 11% oxygen, and 3% nitrogen (Supporting
Information Table S1). XPS provides solid confirmation of
surface functionalization demonstrating a carbon to nitrogen
ratio of 25 that is only slightly higher than the value expected
based on stoichiometry of MeOTPA of 22. On the basis of the
stoichiometry of MeOTPA, at least 6% of oxygen should be
associated with ligand, thus 5% from surface oxidation. The
XPS ratio of C/Si is slightly higher than expected for a 2.8 nm
SiQD with 80% coverage (65% carbon, 19% silicon, 7.8%
oxygen, and 3.4% nitrogen), which can be explained by the
presence of adventitious carbon and sampling multiple layers of
quantum dots rather than monolayer. Deconvolution of high-
resolution C 1s spectra shown in Figure 4a1 provides
information about the relative amount of CC, C−N, C−O,
CO, and O−CO, and along with the shakeup feature
located at ∼291 eV further confirms a match between expected
and observed structures of the MeOTPA-SiQD. In comparison,
C 1s spectra acquired from decyl functionalized SiQDs shows
C−C and various C−O species and no shakeup feature,
confirming lack of conjugation in the structure of the ligand
(Figure 4a2). Both samples show peak binding energy lower
than those of C−C and CC groups, suggesting formation of
bonds between C and Si. High-resolution Si 2p spectra
representative of MeOTPA-SiQDs is shown in Figure 4b. The
spectrum is fit with four peaks, each consisting of two
components, 2p3/2 and 2p1/2, separated by 0.6 eV. The 2p3/2
component of the first doublet located at 99.6 eV is attributed
to Si(0).45
The second 2p3/2 component located at 100.4 eV is
due to Si−C species, further corroborating formation of
bonding between Si and C atoms of the ligand.42,46,47
Doublet
with 2p3/2 component located at 102.4 eV is due to Si−Ox
species, that is, suboxides.42,48,49
A small component at 103.0
eV could also be attributed to Si−Ox species, which are more
similar to those observed in SiO2. On the basis of these
assignments, the amounts of Si(0), Si−C, and Si−Ox species
are estimated at 58 ± 3.3, 18 ± 1.0, and 23.9 ± 4.3% (which
normalized to the total amount of measured silicon
corresponds to 7.9, 2.5 and 3.25%, respectively). Considering
the total amount of oxygen of 11% and the fact that at least 6%
of oxygen is associated with ligand, the amount of oxygen that
could be associated with SiQD is ∼5%. On the basis of the
amount of oxygen bonded to Si (5%) and amount of Si bonded
to oxygen (3.25%), the average ratio of oxygen atoms bonded
to Si is 1.5, which is more typical of suboxides as oppose to fully
oxidized Si in SiO2. The spectrum of Si 2p acquired from decyl
functionalized SiQDs is fairly similar to that of MeOTPA-
SiQDs with small differences related to distribution of Si−Ox
bonds (Figure 4b2). This difference is not surprising
considering that some heterogeneity in the Si-Ox species is
observed even when comparing several analysis areas for the
same sample/batch.
Absorption and photoluminescence (PL) spectra of
MeOTPA- and decyl-passivated SiQD dichloromethane sol-
utions were measured and presented in Figure 5. Photo-
luminescence excitation (PLE) spectra for MeOTPA ligand,
MeOTPA- and decyl-passivated SiQDs are provided in
Supporting Information Figure S2. The MeOTPA-SiQDs
exhibit an enhanced absorption in the range from 290−450
nm compared with the decyl-passivated dots. Some of this
enhanced absorption results from the newly emerged shoulder
absorption at 295 nm that is predicted to be the direct
absorption transition from the MeOTPA ligand attached to the
SiQD.40
In the region from 350 to 450 nm, the absorption
intensity of MeOTPA-SiQDs has a slower decay than that of
decyl-passivated dots, implying the optical gap of MeOTPA
dots has been reduced. While the absorption bands of the
SiQDs are relatively structureless and do not show an abrupt
edge, it is clear from Figure 5a that the band edge for
MeOTPA-SiQD has been red shifted by at least 75 nm over the
decyl-SiQD analog.
In the PL spectra (Figure 5b), the decyl-SiQD emission peak
at 679 nm (1.83 eV) suggests that the mean dot diameter is
Figure 4. High-resolution XPS spectra of C 1s (a) and Si 2p for SiQDs
modified with (1) MeOTPA and (2) decyl.
Nano Letters Letter
DOI: 10.1021/nl504051x
Nano Lett. XXXX, XXX, XXX−XXX
D
approximately 3.1 nm.50,51
This agrees well with the trans-
mission electron microscopy (TEM) results of MeOTPA-
SiQDs as shown in Figure 6. A size count histogram (Figure 6a
and Supporting Information Figure S8) for 329 dots reveals an
average size of 5.0 nm with a mode of 2.8 nm, both consistent
with the 3.1 nm size suggested from the decyl-SiQD PL results
(same hydride terminated SiQD precursor used for both
materials). Consistent with the reduced optical gap observed in
the absorption spectra, the normalized PL spectrum of
MeOTPA-SiQDs (peak at 749 nm (1.66 eV)) shows a
significant red shift of 70 nm versus the decyl-SiQDs. This
0.17 eV change in the emission peak is in qualitative agreement
with our computational prediction of 0.24 eV for 3.1 nm
SiQDs. The 72 meV difference is smaller than the uncertainty
associated with the TDDFT methodology as applied to
SiQDs.52
These experimental results strongly suggest that our
computational predictions of the reduced optical gap in such
Type-II energy level aligned hybrid SiQDs material are valid.
Hydride-terminated SiQDs that are significantly larger than
what is studied here are expected to have HOMO levels that
result in a Type-I interface between dot and MeOTPA. The
direct excitation from the MeOTPA HOMO to SiQD LUMO
loses dominance with the independent excitation from the
SiQDs and organic ligand becoming stronger. This is consistent
with the 295 nm shoulder in the absorption spectrum of
MeOTPA-SiQDs, indicative of a large portion of independent
excitation transitions associated only with the ligand.
It should also be noted that, in contrast to the broadened and
slightly red-shifted PL observed in styrene functionalized
SiQDs,4
the PL of MeOTPA-SiQDs has completely shifted
away from the PL of decyl-passivated SiQDs. This indicates the
CT state dominates the excited state of MeOTPA-SiQDs. In
other words, in addition to indirect excitons, direct excitons
generated from the independent absorption transition of SiQDs
dissociate into CT states. This is evidenced by red-shifted PL
that comes primarily from direct relaxation of the CT state. We
conclude from this that a Type-II aligned hybrid material
Figure 5. (a) Absorption and (b) PL spectra of MeOTPA and decyl-
passivated SiQDs in dichloromethane solutions.
Figure 6. TEM characterization of MeOTPA-SiQDs. (a) Histogram
showing the particle size distribution. (b) Bright-field TEM micro-
graph illustrating a representative SiQD size and morphology. (c) The
selected area diffraction pattern of many SiQDs illustrating excellent
crystallinity and primarily Si phase to be present.
Nano Letters Letter
DOI: 10.1021/nl504051x
Nano Lett. XXXX, XXX, XXX−XXX
E
system will lead to efficient exciton dissociation, one of the
most important steps in solar cell photoconversion.
In order to further explore the contribution of the MeOTPA
ligand on the SiQD systems, we performed cyclic voltammetry
(CV) on MeOTPA-SiQD (Supporting Information Figure
S5a), a model compound of MeOTPA attached to triethylsilane
with a vinyl group (Supporting Information Figure S5b), the
starting MeOTPA ligands (Supporting Information Figure S6c)
and ferrocene as a control (Supporting Information Figure
S5d). The HOMO level for the MeOTPA-SiQD of −4.46 eV
differs substantially from the model compound (−4.66 eV) and
starting ligand (−4.76 eV) suggesting that the oxidized
MeOTPA ligand is being influenced by the SiQD, hence the
MeOTPA and SiQD are electronically communicating through
the vinyl linkage. We do not see any CV response on the decyl
SiQD material.
In summary, we demonstrate by using both computation and
experimentation, that strategically designed aromatic amine
ligands, linked by conjugation to SiQD surfaces, participate in
charge transport in such hybrid systems. This has led to an
unprecedented 70 nm red-shifted photoluminescence versus
their decyl terminated analogues and a 300 meV shift in the
HOMO level toward vacuum from cyclic voltammetry. We
believe this result can lead to new opportunities for SiQD
application in the optoelectronic community. In addition, it is
further evidence of the efficacy in using computation to help
direct the design and synthesis of new materials.
■ ASSOCIATED CONTENT
*S Supporting Information
Synthetic procedures, experimental details, FT-IR, CV, and
PLE spectra, and other supporting results. The Supporting
Information is available free of charge on the ACS Publications
website at DOI: 10.1021/nl504051x.
■ AUTHOR INFORMATION
Corresponding Authors
*E-mail: (T.Z.) tianleizhou@ymail.com.
*E-mail: (A.S.) aselli@mines.edu.
Notes
The authors declare no competing financial interest.
■ ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This research is supported by the Renewable Energy Materials
Research Science and Engineering Center (REMRSEC) under
Award Number DMR-0820518, and by startup funds (A.S.)
from Colorado School of Mines (C.S.M.). The authors
acknowledge the Golden Energy Computing Organization at
the Colorado School of Mines for the use of resources acquired
with financial assistance from the National Science Foundation
and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL). The
authors also acknowledge the surface analysis facilities at
NREL.
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nl504051x

  • 1. Bandgap Tuning of Silicon Quantum Dots by Surface Functionalization with Conjugated Organic Groups Tianlei Zhou,*,† Ryan T. Anderson,†,§ Huashan Li,‡ Jacob Bell,† Yongan Yang,† Brian P. Gorman,§,∥ Svitlana Pylypenko,†,§ Mark T. Lusk,‡ and Alan Sellinger*,†,§ † Department of Chemistry and Geochemistry, ‡ Department of Physics, § Materials Science Program, ∥ Metallurgical and Materials Engineering, Colorado School of Mines, Golden, Colorado 80401, United States *S Supporting Information ABSTRACT: The quantum confinement and enhanced optical properties of silicon quantum dots (SiQDs) make them attractive as an inexpensive and nontoxic material for a variety of applications such as light emitting technologies (lighting, displays, sensors) and photovoltaics. However, experimental demonstration of these properties and practical application into optoelectronic devices have been limited as SiQDs are generally passivated with covalently bound insulating alkyl chains that limit charge transport. In this work, we show that strategically designed triphenylamine- based surface ligands covalently bonded to the SiQD surface using conjugated vinyl connectivity results in a 70 nm red- shifted photoluminescence relative to their decyl-capped control counterparts. This suggests that electron density from the SiQD is delocalized into the surface ligands to effectively create a larger hybrid QD with possible macroscopic charge transport properties. KEYWORDS: Si quantum dots, type-II energy level aligned interface, band gap tuning, CT state, hydrosilylation Q uantum dots (QDs) have enormous potential for a variety of applications based on their unique properties such as slow cooling of hot carriers, multiple-exciton generation, tunable absorption/emission, and low-cost solution processing possibilities.1−4 Of the many QD families studied to date, silicon (Si)QDs are one of the most promising candidates because of silicon’s relatively low cost, industrial maturity, high earth abundance, and nontoxic/environmentally friendly properties. As a result, SiQDs have significant advantages over other promising QD materials based on relatively toxic elements such as PbS(Se) and CdSe(Te).5−7 Similar to many other QD materials, the SiQD optical gap can be tuned by their size based on the quantum confinement effect. Examples of SiQDs with tunable emission from blue to red have been reported.7−11 Despite this, the absorption of SiQDs in the visible spectrum is very weak due to their indirect band structure.12 For example, the major absorption band of red emitting SiQDs is located at the UV/near UV wavelength region.13 This property would limit the absorption of visible wavelength photons to yield photovoltaics with low power conversion efficiencies.6,14−20 In general, SiQDs are prepared with a surface of silicon hydride groups that will be quickly oxidized to silicon hydroxyl/silicon oxide in the presence of oxygen and/or water (ambient conditions).6,21,22 In order to stabilize SiQDs, procedures have been developed to function- alize the surface with groups that will protect from surface oxidation and render the QDs soluble for solution process- ing.16,17,23−36 Organic alkyl chains are one of the most common groups used to functionalize SiQDs through the formation of Si−C bonds using the hydrosilylation reaction of alkenes/ alkynes with the Si−H functionalized surface. To date, the influence of alkyl chains on the optical properties of SiQDs is very limited and only small changes have been reported.37−39 Ethyl termination of Si142 dots and allylamine termination of Si35 dots were predicted to result in a gap reduction of 50 meV.37,39 In principle, alkyl chains have a minimal effect on the optical gap of SiQDs because of their Type-I energy level alignment and weak molecular orbital coupling to SiQDs (Figure 1, left). In order to achieve a Type-II energy alignment with SiQDs, it is important to have a direct low-energy transition involving the highest occupied molecular orbital (HOMO) of the organic ligand with the lowest unoccupied molecular orbital (LUMO) of the SiQDs (Figure 1, right). This was predicted by our previous theoretical study showing that a Type-II aligned organic/SiQD system exhibited lower energy and enhanced absorption resulting from direct excitation that generates a charge transfer (CT) state.40 Besides the proper Type-II energy alignment, the conjugated vinyl group that covalently links the organic ligand and the SiQD is crucial in achieving a directly generated CT state because of its ability to Received: October 21, 2014 Revised: April 28, 2015 Letter pubs.acs.org/NanoLett © XXXX American Chemical Society A DOI: 10.1021/nl504051x Nano Lett. XXXX, XXX, XXX−XXX
  • 2. improve the molecular orbital overlap between the organic ligand and the SiQD.40 To date we have found very few reports that link an aromatic ligand to the SiQD using a vinyl linkage and none combining computation and experimental results.4,41 However, the styryl ligand considered was not designed to form a Type-II energy alignment with SiQDs and only a slightly broadened PL was observed; both Type-II energy alignment and conjugated bridges are essential for effective tuning of SiQDs optical properties by peripheral ligands.40 Reported here is the design and synthesis of 4-ethynyl-N,N- bis(4-methoxyphenyl)aniline (MeOTPA) as the organic molecule to functionalize SiQDs. The triphenylamine moiety is a typical electron rich material that has a comparatively high- lying HOMO level compared with many other organic materials used for organic electronics devices. A para- substitution of electron donating methoxy groups can further raise the HOMO level of MeOTPA and make it high enough (−4.46 eV, 278 nm) to form the Type-II energy alignment with SiQDs. Furthermore, the hole transport properties of the triphenylamine-based ligand may facilitate hole transport in the double superexchange system previously reported by our group.40,42 The terminal alkyne functional group was added to the triphenylamine so as to form vinyl connective bridges with the Si−H sites of the SiQD upon hydrosilylation chemistry. A theoretical study of the molecular orbital energy of MeOTPA functionalized SiQDs was carried out based on the time-dependent density functional theory (TDDFT). The computational methodology is the same as that detailed in our earlier study.40 A SiQD (Si849H344) with a diameter of 3.1 nm (Figure 2) was chosen as a model system. In the computational study, only four MeOTPA molecules were considered because minimal changes were observed in the optoelectronic analysis of smaller dots using more than four MeOTPA attachments. Specifically, changing the number of MeOTPA ligands from 4 to 8, 12, and 16 did not significantly change the absorption peaks although it does influence the shape of the spectra at the low energy edge because of the localization of low-energy orbitals. In addition, a comparison of the optoelectronic properties of small dots with decyl and hydride passivation gave almost identical results. This implies that a direct comparison can be made between our computa- tionally generated dots with hydrogen passivation and our experimental setting in which decyl passivation is employed. The computationally predicted influence of MeOTPA functionalization is shown in Figure 2, where frontier orbitals are shown for hydrogen (left) versus MeOTPA (right) termination. The latter shows a significantly lower optical gap of 1292 nm (0.96 eV) as compared with those having only hydrogen termination (1033 nm, 1.20 eV). This 0.24 eV (259 nm) red shift is consistent with our earlier prediction of a Type- II aligned organic/SiQD hybrid system.40 The results are summarized in Table 1. To experimentally verify our theoretical predictions, the MeOTPA ligand was synthesized via a Sonogashira reaction of trimethylsilylacetylene with 4-iodo-N,N-bis(4-methoxyphenyl)- aniline followed by a potassium hydroxide removal of the trimethylsilyl group to obtain the terminal alkyne (Figure 3a). The decyl and MeOTPA functionalized SiQDs were prepared using thermal hydrosilylation, (Figure 3b).6 After passivation by MeOTPA or 1-decene, the resultant SiQDs became very soluble in common solvents such as dichloromethane, qualitatively indicating that surface functionalization had occurred (Figure 3b). FT-IR was used to follow the MeOTPA reaction on the SiQD surface. In Supporting Information Figure S1a, the successful preparation of MeOTPA functionalized SiQD is suggested by the formation of -Si-CC- stretching bands at 1599 cm−1 , although this also overlaps with the aromatic −C C− bonds from MeOTPA.4,41 Additional evidence comes from the presence of aromatic C−H stretching bands around 3000 cm−1 and MeOTPA feature absorption at about 1500, 1240, 1035, and 825 cm−1 . Evidence of unreacted Si−H is shown in the 2100 cm−1 region, which is not surprising as total ligand coverage of the SiQD surface is unlikely due to steric issues and is commonly seen in other SiQD hydrosilylation systems. Furthermore, no CC−H stretch at 3283 cm−1 and CC at 2100 cm−1 (Supporting Information Figure S1b) are observed when compared with MeOTPA starting materials as shown in Supporting Information Figure S1b. The absence of MeOTPA starting material also indicates the MeOTPA SiQDs have been well purified. Supporting Information Figure S1c shows the FT- IR of decyl-passivated SiQDs. The absorption bands at 2920, 1465, and 1378 cm−1 are features from the alkyl stretching and Figure 1. Electron transition in Type-I (left) and Type-II (right) molecular orbital energy level aligned organic functionalized SiQDs hybrid systems. Figure 2. HOMO (red) and LUMO (green) isosurfaces from TDDFT analysis of a 3.1 nm Si849H344 QD capped by (left) only hydride and (right) by hydride and four MeOTPA ligands. Isosurfaces are for a fixed value of the absolute value of electron orbitals, 0.009 Å−3/2 . Table 1. Theoretical Calculation of Molecular Orbital Energy of Hydride Passivated, Decyl Passivated, MeOTPA Functionalized SiQDs (3.1 nm) and MeOTPA Molecule Based on Time Dependent Density Functional Theory (TDDFT) energy (eV) Si849H348 Si849H344 (MeOTPA)4 MeOTPA HOMO −5.19 −4.89 −4.46 LUMO −4.00 −3.93 −2.10 optical gap 1.19 (1042 nm) 0.96 (1291 nm) 2.36 (525 nm) Nano Letters Letter DOI: 10.1021/nl504051x Nano Lett. XXXX, XXX, XXX−XXX B
  • 3. deformation demonstrating surface alkylation of SiQDs. The absence of −CC− stretch at 1641 cm−1 (Supporting Information Figure S1d) also indicates that 1-decene has been thoroughly removed during the purification process despite also being used in large excess. As is the case for the MeOTPA SiQDs, a minor and broad peak at 2088 cm−1 results from unreacted Si−H on the SiQD surface. In the FT-IR of many reported SiQDs passivated with alkyl chains, the intense and structureless band around 1080−1090 cm−1 is commonly ascribed to Si−O−Si from surface oxidation.43,44 A similar relatively broad peak was also observed in our decyl-passivated SiQDs at 1031 cm−1 that is quite different from the reported values (>50 cm−1 ). It has been reported that partial oxidation of SiHx surfaces could shift the hydride stretching band to higher energy with a characteristic stretch at 2250 cm−1 for O3Si−H, while formation of Si−C bonds has been predicted to shift the frequency to lower energy.41 It was also reported that the vibration of Si−O not only appears at 1090 cm−1 , but also at ∼460 cm−1 with an intense but smaller band of 60% less in absorption intensity.43 This could be very useful and straightforward for the evaluation of the oxidation degree of SiQDs. To make sure that the 460 cm−1 band can be used as reference for our hybrid SiQDs, our hydride SiQDs were intentionally oxidized by heating them in open air for 24 h, and Figure 3. (a) The synthesis of MeOTPA ligand. (b) The preparation of hydride terminated SiQDs and MeOTPA functionalized SiQDs. Nano Letters Letter DOI: 10.1021/nl504051x Nano Lett. XXXX, XXX, XXX−XXX C
  • 4. the FT-IR spectrum was subsequently investigated. As seen in Supporting Information Figure S1e, the similar intense and broad absorption band at 1081 cm−1 and the smaller band at 458 cm−1 were observed in such oxidized SiQDs, indicating the reference absorption band around 460 cm−1 should be applicable to our SiQDs as well. Thus, the absence of an observable 460 cm−1 absorption band in the FT-IR spectra of decyl and MeOTPA passivated SiQDs indicates there was no significant oxidation in our materials. It also further confirms that the 1031 cm−1 absorption band that we observed in our SiQD materials is not from exhaustive oxidation but rather suboxide formation.36 FT-IR of our starting hydride terminated SiQDs are shown in Supporting Information Figure S1f showing the characteristic Si−H at 2098 cm−1 . A small peak around 1030 cm−1 is observed indicating surface suboxides. Some C−H absorption bands are seen in the 3000 cm−1 region from residual solvent when depositing the sample on the ATR crystal. In both of our SiQD systems, we are not so concerned with some oxidation on the surface as this will be inevitable in practical applications. As shown in the next sections, the surface oxidation does not seem to affect the new optoelectronic properties associated with attaching our conjugated ligands. Further evaluation of functionalized SiQDs was performed using X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). The size of the functionalized SiQDs is smaller than the sampling depth of XPS, therefore XPS analysis provides bulk rather than surface composition. SiQDs functionalized with MeOTPA show ∼72% carbon, 14% silicon, 11% oxygen, and 3% nitrogen (Supporting Information Table S1). XPS provides solid confirmation of surface functionalization demonstrating a carbon to nitrogen ratio of 25 that is only slightly higher than the value expected based on stoichiometry of MeOTPA of 22. On the basis of the stoichiometry of MeOTPA, at least 6% of oxygen should be associated with ligand, thus 5% from surface oxidation. The XPS ratio of C/Si is slightly higher than expected for a 2.8 nm SiQD with 80% coverage (65% carbon, 19% silicon, 7.8% oxygen, and 3.4% nitrogen), which can be explained by the presence of adventitious carbon and sampling multiple layers of quantum dots rather than monolayer. Deconvolution of high- resolution C 1s spectra shown in Figure 4a1 provides information about the relative amount of CC, C−N, C−O, CO, and O−CO, and along with the shakeup feature located at ∼291 eV further confirms a match between expected and observed structures of the MeOTPA-SiQD. In comparison, C 1s spectra acquired from decyl functionalized SiQDs shows C−C and various C−O species and no shakeup feature, confirming lack of conjugation in the structure of the ligand (Figure 4a2). Both samples show peak binding energy lower than those of C−C and CC groups, suggesting formation of bonds between C and Si. High-resolution Si 2p spectra representative of MeOTPA-SiQDs is shown in Figure 4b. The spectrum is fit with four peaks, each consisting of two components, 2p3/2 and 2p1/2, separated by 0.6 eV. The 2p3/2 component of the first doublet located at 99.6 eV is attributed to Si(0).45 The second 2p3/2 component located at 100.4 eV is due to Si−C species, further corroborating formation of bonding between Si and C atoms of the ligand.42,46,47 Doublet with 2p3/2 component located at 102.4 eV is due to Si−Ox species, that is, suboxides.42,48,49 A small component at 103.0 eV could also be attributed to Si−Ox species, which are more similar to those observed in SiO2. On the basis of these assignments, the amounts of Si(0), Si−C, and Si−Ox species are estimated at 58 ± 3.3, 18 ± 1.0, and 23.9 ± 4.3% (which normalized to the total amount of measured silicon corresponds to 7.9, 2.5 and 3.25%, respectively). Considering the total amount of oxygen of 11% and the fact that at least 6% of oxygen is associated with ligand, the amount of oxygen that could be associated with SiQD is ∼5%. On the basis of the amount of oxygen bonded to Si (5%) and amount of Si bonded to oxygen (3.25%), the average ratio of oxygen atoms bonded to Si is 1.5, which is more typical of suboxides as oppose to fully oxidized Si in SiO2. The spectrum of Si 2p acquired from decyl functionalized SiQDs is fairly similar to that of MeOTPA- SiQDs with small differences related to distribution of Si−Ox bonds (Figure 4b2). This difference is not surprising considering that some heterogeneity in the Si-Ox species is observed even when comparing several analysis areas for the same sample/batch. Absorption and photoluminescence (PL) spectra of MeOTPA- and decyl-passivated SiQD dichloromethane sol- utions were measured and presented in Figure 5. Photo- luminescence excitation (PLE) spectra for MeOTPA ligand, MeOTPA- and decyl-passivated SiQDs are provided in Supporting Information Figure S2. The MeOTPA-SiQDs exhibit an enhanced absorption in the range from 290−450 nm compared with the decyl-passivated dots. Some of this enhanced absorption results from the newly emerged shoulder absorption at 295 nm that is predicted to be the direct absorption transition from the MeOTPA ligand attached to the SiQD.40 In the region from 350 to 450 nm, the absorption intensity of MeOTPA-SiQDs has a slower decay than that of decyl-passivated dots, implying the optical gap of MeOTPA dots has been reduced. While the absorption bands of the SiQDs are relatively structureless and do not show an abrupt edge, it is clear from Figure 5a that the band edge for MeOTPA-SiQD has been red shifted by at least 75 nm over the decyl-SiQD analog. In the PL spectra (Figure 5b), the decyl-SiQD emission peak at 679 nm (1.83 eV) suggests that the mean dot diameter is Figure 4. High-resolution XPS spectra of C 1s (a) and Si 2p for SiQDs modified with (1) MeOTPA and (2) decyl. Nano Letters Letter DOI: 10.1021/nl504051x Nano Lett. XXXX, XXX, XXX−XXX D
  • 5. approximately 3.1 nm.50,51 This agrees well with the trans- mission electron microscopy (TEM) results of MeOTPA- SiQDs as shown in Figure 6. A size count histogram (Figure 6a and Supporting Information Figure S8) for 329 dots reveals an average size of 5.0 nm with a mode of 2.8 nm, both consistent with the 3.1 nm size suggested from the decyl-SiQD PL results (same hydride terminated SiQD precursor used for both materials). Consistent with the reduced optical gap observed in the absorption spectra, the normalized PL spectrum of MeOTPA-SiQDs (peak at 749 nm (1.66 eV)) shows a significant red shift of 70 nm versus the decyl-SiQDs. This 0.17 eV change in the emission peak is in qualitative agreement with our computational prediction of 0.24 eV for 3.1 nm SiQDs. The 72 meV difference is smaller than the uncertainty associated with the TDDFT methodology as applied to SiQDs.52 These experimental results strongly suggest that our computational predictions of the reduced optical gap in such Type-II energy level aligned hybrid SiQDs material are valid. Hydride-terminated SiQDs that are significantly larger than what is studied here are expected to have HOMO levels that result in a Type-I interface between dot and MeOTPA. The direct excitation from the MeOTPA HOMO to SiQD LUMO loses dominance with the independent excitation from the SiQDs and organic ligand becoming stronger. This is consistent with the 295 nm shoulder in the absorption spectrum of MeOTPA-SiQDs, indicative of a large portion of independent excitation transitions associated only with the ligand. It should also be noted that, in contrast to the broadened and slightly red-shifted PL observed in styrene functionalized SiQDs,4 the PL of MeOTPA-SiQDs has completely shifted away from the PL of decyl-passivated SiQDs. This indicates the CT state dominates the excited state of MeOTPA-SiQDs. In other words, in addition to indirect excitons, direct excitons generated from the independent absorption transition of SiQDs dissociate into CT states. This is evidenced by red-shifted PL that comes primarily from direct relaxation of the CT state. We conclude from this that a Type-II aligned hybrid material Figure 5. (a) Absorption and (b) PL spectra of MeOTPA and decyl- passivated SiQDs in dichloromethane solutions. Figure 6. TEM characterization of MeOTPA-SiQDs. (a) Histogram showing the particle size distribution. (b) Bright-field TEM micro- graph illustrating a representative SiQD size and morphology. (c) The selected area diffraction pattern of many SiQDs illustrating excellent crystallinity and primarily Si phase to be present. Nano Letters Letter DOI: 10.1021/nl504051x Nano Lett. XXXX, XXX, XXX−XXX E
  • 6. system will lead to efficient exciton dissociation, one of the most important steps in solar cell photoconversion. In order to further explore the contribution of the MeOTPA ligand on the SiQD systems, we performed cyclic voltammetry (CV) on MeOTPA-SiQD (Supporting Information Figure S5a), a model compound of MeOTPA attached to triethylsilane with a vinyl group (Supporting Information Figure S5b), the starting MeOTPA ligands (Supporting Information Figure S6c) and ferrocene as a control (Supporting Information Figure S5d). The HOMO level for the MeOTPA-SiQD of −4.46 eV differs substantially from the model compound (−4.66 eV) and starting ligand (−4.76 eV) suggesting that the oxidized MeOTPA ligand is being influenced by the SiQD, hence the MeOTPA and SiQD are electronically communicating through the vinyl linkage. We do not see any CV response on the decyl SiQD material. In summary, we demonstrate by using both computation and experimentation, that strategically designed aromatic amine ligands, linked by conjugation to SiQD surfaces, participate in charge transport in such hybrid systems. This has led to an unprecedented 70 nm red-shifted photoluminescence versus their decyl terminated analogues and a 300 meV shift in the HOMO level toward vacuum from cyclic voltammetry. We believe this result can lead to new opportunities for SiQD application in the optoelectronic community. In addition, it is further evidence of the efficacy in using computation to help direct the design and synthesis of new materials. ■ ASSOCIATED CONTENT *S Supporting Information Synthetic procedures, experimental details, FT-IR, CV, and PLE spectra, and other supporting results. The Supporting Information is available free of charge on the ACS Publications website at DOI: 10.1021/nl504051x. ■ AUTHOR INFORMATION Corresponding Authors *E-mail: (T.Z.) tianleizhou@ymail.com. *E-mail: (A.S.) aselli@mines.edu. Notes The authors declare no competing financial interest. ■ ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This research is supported by the Renewable Energy Materials Research Science and Engineering Center (REMRSEC) under Award Number DMR-0820518, and by startup funds (A.S.) from Colorado School of Mines (C.S.M.). The authors acknowledge the Golden Energy Computing Organization at the Colorado School of Mines for the use of resources acquired with financial assistance from the National Science Foundation and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL). The authors also acknowledge the surface analysis facilities at NREL. ■ REFERENCES (1) Beard, M. C.; Knutsen, K. P.; Yu, P.; Luther, J. M.; Song, Q.; Metzger, W. K.; Ellingson, R. J.; Nozik, A. J. Nano Lett. 2007, 7 (8), 2506−12. 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