Indium phosphide (InP) nanocrystals are emerging as an alternative to heavy metal containing nanocrystals for optoelectronic applications but lag behind in terms of synthetic control. Herein, luminescent wurtzite InP nanocrystals with narrow size distribution were synthesized via a cation exchange reaction from hexagonal Cu3P nanocrystals. A comprehensive surface treatment with NOBF4 was performed, which removes excess copper while generating stoichiometric In/P nanocrystals with fluoride surface passivation. The attained InP nanocrystals manifest a highly resolved absorption spectrum with a narrow emission line of 80 meV, and photoluminescence quantum yield of up to 40%. Optical anisotropy measurements on ensemble and single particle bases show the occurrence of polarized transitions directly mirroring the anisotropic wurtzite lattice, as also manifested from modeling of the quantum confined electronic levels. This shows a green synthesis path for achieving wurtzite InP nanocrystals with desired optoelectronic properties including color purity and light polarization with potential for diverse optoelectronic applications.

Semiconductor nanocrystals based photoinitiators, quantum PIs, are a viable alternative for organic photoinitiators demonstrating unique advantages, including a broad and tunable excitation window, limited migration, and more. Aiming towards efficient...

Semiconductor nanocrystals (NCs) are promising photocatalysts due to their high surface area to volume ratio and tunable physicochemical properties. Of particular interest are earthabundant metal oxides, such as ZnO and CuO, which are stable under ambient conditions and in aqueous media and are environmentally and biologically compatible. While CuO NCs are efficient catalytic and antimicrobial materials featuring strong and broad absorption in the visible region, their challenging surface chemistry and low colloidal stability so far limited their wide implementation as photocatalysts. On the other hand, colloidal ZnO NCs function as excellent photocatalysts in various media, but their absorption is limited to the UV region. Herein, colloidal antimicrobial Cu 1−x Zn x O NCs are synthesized via a facile and cost-effective method, forming a unique spatial dependent structure and composition, with higher zinc concentration on the surface. The doped NCs show enhanced antimicrobial activity increasing with higher amount of dopant. Furthermore, the NCs exhibit superior antimicrobial activity upon visible light illumination effectively eradicating even multidrug resistant bacteria, due to increased ion migration and photocatalytic formation of reactive oxygen species. Such Cu 1−x Zn x O NCs, therefore, show promise as biocompatible antimicrobial materials that can be utilized under ambient conditions in diverse scenarios enabled by wet chemical processing.