Nanoparticle Synthesis & Quantum Confinement

Colloidal Synthesis

Precursor concentration 1.0x

Reaction temperature 220°C

Surfactant / ligand coverage 0.55

Ostwald ripening 0.20

Avg diameter

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Peak emission

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Monomer remaining

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Polydispersity

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How it works

Synthesis follows the LaMer burst-nucleation model: a spike in precursor concentration pushes the solution past its supersaturation threshold, a crowd of nuclei forms almost simultaneously, and the dissolved monomer pool that's left over is then consumed by diffusion-limited growth. Because every nucleus is born at nearly the same instant and grows from the same shrinking pool, the batch stays comparatively monodisperse — the classic recipe behind quantum dots (QDs), gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) and other size-tuned colloids.

dr/dt = k(T) · C_monomer / r
E(R) ≈ E_bulk + h²/(8R²)·(1/mₑ + 1/mₕ)   (quantum confinement)

Precursor concentration — sets how far past the nucleation threshold the solution spikes, so it controls how many nuclei are born in the initial burst.
Reaction temperature — speeds up monomer diffusion to the particle surface, so higher temperature grows particles faster and burns through the monomer pool sooner.
Surfactant / ligand coverage — capping molecules that stick to the surface and provide steric repulsion; high coverage keeps particles separated and, once growth stalls, lets them settle into an ordered superlattice, while low coverage lets van der Waals attraction pull particles into irregular aggregates.
Ostwald ripening — once free monomer runs low, larger particles keep growing at the expense of smaller ones (lower surface curvature, lower solubility), broadening the size distribution over time.

Particle colour follows a simplified quantum-confinement rule: shrinking a nanocrystal widens its effective bandgap, blue-shifting the wavelength it absorbs/emits — the same size-tunable-colour effect that makes quantum dot displays and biological imaging tags possible.

Small (blue-shifted) Medium Large Very large (red-shifted)

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