Synthesis of InP and InAs quantum rods using Indium Acetate and Myristic acid

The development of solution based synthesis approaches for preparing nanocrystals of III-V semiconductor presents a significant & important challenge especially with relation to shape control to achieve rod growth. To this end, a novel approach for synthesis of soluble semiconductor quantum rods using metal nanoparticles to direct and catalyze one-dimensional growth is developed. The synthesis method is useful in particular for III-V semiconductor with cubic lattice, where the utilization of surfactant-controlled rod-growth is not easily realized. The growth takes place via the solution-liquid-solid (SLS) mechanism where proper precursors are injected into a coordinating solvent as we reported in earlier work for InAs nanorods. Herein, we report the synthesis of high quality InP nanorods using Indium Acetate and myristic acid with gold nanoparticles as the catalysts in the SLS growth mode. A similar route was successfully developed for the growth of InAs nanorods. We find that the amount of Au catalyst in the reaction is an important parameter to achieving shape control. Transmission electron microscope (TEM) images of InP and InAs nanocrystals revealed that the crystals are mostly rod-shaped. XRD measurements, absorption spectra were preformed for the nanorods characterization.