Heavy Cyanate Analogues as Precursors to Group III-V Semiconductor Nanoparticles

能够发射特定颜色(或能量)光的材料有多种用途，主要是在显示器中。开发定制材料使我们能够改进当前的应用，例如提高显示器的图像分辨率，并获得全新的技术，如生物成像剂。半导体纳米粒子，被称为量子点，是已知的最小的材料之一，能够在广泛的能量范围内发光。量子点是高度可调的，根据其组成、大小和表面特征发出不同的能量光。它们的微小尺寸和可定制的发射特性导致了它们的广泛探索和开发。由镉、硒和碲组成的材料在量子点中得到了最多的利用，部分原因是它们的制备协议很完善。它们可靠的制备和诱人的光学性能相结合，使其在早期量子点电视显示器中实现了商业化。然而，尽管取得了重大进展，但其构成的剧毒元素(镉和硒)已被证明是阻碍其更广泛采用的一个因素。这些元素的固有毒性在很大程度上排除了它们在生物应用中的使用。此外，越来越多的法律对消费品中镉浓度的限制进一步降低了商业利益。由毒性较低、对环境更友好的元素组成的量子点，如镓、铟和磷，是含镉和硒材料的重要替代品。它们的低毒性使这些材料在消费和生物成像应用中具有吸引力。这类材料的一个关键挑战是制造它们所需的高活性和危险的化学品。这些化学物质在空气中自燃，使其难以大规模处理。此外，与镉和硒材料相比，它们的高反应性导致了光学质量较差的量子点。我们的研究希望通过探索一系列活性较低、更容易操作的前体来克服这些挑战。我们的研究将调查一系列新兴的化学物质，称为重氰酸盐类似物，它可能提供一种更容易获得、更安全的方法来生成毒性较低的量子点。这些化学物质在分子研究中已被证明是磷等元素的有效来源，但在制备量子点方面尚未得到探索。我们设想，这些化学物质，其中一些具有相当大的空气和湿气耐受性，可能是目前更危险的前体的有益替代品。这项工作旨在调查这种新的化学物质家族是否可以用于制备量子点。该项目属于EPSRC制造未来研究领域。如果成功，这项工作将代表着这一化学家族前所未有的应用--将基础研究应用于更大、更有价值的材料。由于这些化学物质易于扩展，它们是博塔科学和制造方面有吸引力的替代品。综上所述，这项研究将探索重氰酸酯类似物作为低毒量子点的替代前体，目标是开发更安全、工业上有吸引力的制剂。

Materials capable of emitting light with a specific colour (or energy) have a variety of uses, predominantly in displays. Developing bespoke materials allows us to improve current applications, such as improving image resolution in displays, and access brand new technologies, such as biological imaging agents.Semiconductor nanoparticles, known as quantum dots, are some of the smallest materials known that are capable of emitting light over a wide range of energies. Quantum dots are highly tuneable, emitting different energy light depending on their composition, size and surface character. Their miniscule size and customisable emissive properties has resulted in their extensive exploration and development.Materials composed of cadmium, selenium and tellurium are most exploited in quantum dots, due in part to well-developed protocols for their preparation. Their reliable preparation, combined with attractive optical properties, lead to their commercialization in early quantum dot television displays. Yet despite significant progress, the highly toxic elements of which they are composed (cadmium and selenium) has proven a prohibitive factor in their wider adoption. The inherent toxicity of these elements largely precludes their use within biological applications. Moreover, growing legislative limitations on cadmium concentration in consumer goods has further reduced commercial interest.Quantum dots composed of less toxic, more environmentally benign elements, such as gallium, indium, and phosphorus, are prominent alternatives to cadmium and selenium containing materials. Their contrastingly lower toxicity makes these materials enticing for use in consumerand bioimaging applications.A key challenge with this class of material is the highly reactive and dangerous chemicals required to make them. These chemicals ignite spontaneously in air, making them difficult to handle on a large scale. Furthermore, their high reactivity results in quantum dots of poorer optical quality, compared to cadmium and selenium materials. Our research looks to overcome these challenges by exploring a less reactive, more easily handled family of precursors.Our research will investigate a family of emerging chemicals, known as heavy cyanate analogues, which may offer a more accessible and safer route to generate less toxic quantum dots. These chemicals have proven effective sources of elements such as phosphorus inmolecular research, but as of yet are unexplored in the preparation of quantum dots. We envision that these chemicals, some of which are considerably air and moisture tolerant, could be beneficial alternatives to current, more hazardous, precursors.This work aims to investigate whether this new family of chemicals can be used to prepare quantum dots. This project falls within the EPSRC Manufacturing the Future research area. If successful, this work would represent an unprecedented application for this family of chemicals - taking fundamental research and applying it to larger, more valuable materials. With the easily scalable preparation known for these chemicals, they are attractive alternatives from botha scientific and manufacturing perspective.In summary, this research will explore heavy cyanate analogues as alternative precursors for low-toxicity quantum dots, with the goal of developing safer, industrially attractive preparations.