One-step controllable synthesis for high-quality ultrafine metal oxide semiconductor nanocrystals via a separated two-phase hydrolysis reaction

A one-step synthesis method is described to prepare high-quality ultrafine inorganic semiconductor nanocrystals via a two-phase interface hydrolysis reaction under hydrothermal conditions. With the synthesis of ZrO2 quantum dots as an example, we show that the prepared nanocrystals have good monodispersity and high crystallinity, as well as other related superior properties, e.g., strong photoluminescence and excellent photocatalytic activities. Also the crystal size can be conveniently adjusted in the range below 10 nm through controlling the reaction temperature. Besides that, this method also shows other distinct advantages compared with other methods reported previously. First, the preparation process is simple and cheap and does not contain any complicated posttreatment procedure. Second, products (without coating) can be collected from the organic phase which effectively avoids grain aggregation induced by the capillary concentration in the water environment. Third, the production yield is very high (almost 100%) and the organic and water phases after reaction can be easily recycled for next reaction. Therefore, it provides a promising strategy for the large-scale industrial production of different kinds of high-quality inorganic nanocrystals.