Solar Energy Materials and Solar Cells, Vol.158, 154-159, 2016
Assembling quantum dots via critical Casimir forces
Programmed assembly of colloidal inorganic nanocrystal superstructures is crucial for the realization of future artificial solids as well as present optoelectronic applications. Here, we present a new way to assemble quantum dots reversibly using binary solvents. By tuning the temperature and composition of the binary solvent mixture, we achieve reversible aggregation of nanocrystals in solution induced by critical Casimir forces. We study the temperature-sensitive quantum-dot assembly with dynamic light scattering. We show that careful screening of the electrostatic repulsion by adding salt provides a further parameter to tune the reversible assembly. (C) 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY license.