Seeded growth of highly luminescent CdSe/CdS nanoheterostructures with rod and tetrapod morphologies

We have demonstrated that seeded growth of nanocrystals offers a convenient way to design nanoheterostructures with complex shapes and morphologies by changing the crystalline structure of the seed. By using Use nanocrystals with wurtzite and zinc blende structure as seeds for growth of US nanorods, we synthesized CdSe/CdS heterostructure nanorods and nanotetrapods, respectively. Both of these structures showed excellent luminescent properties, combining high photoluminescence efficiency (similar to 80 and similar to 50% for nanorods and nanotetrapods, correspondingly), giant extinction coefficients (similar to 2 x 10(7) and similar to 1.5 x 10(8) M-1 cm(-1) at 350 nm for nanorods and nanotetrapods, correspondingly), and efficient energy transfer from the US arms into the emitting CdSe core.