Challenges and Prospects of Electronic Doping of Colloidal Quantum Dots: Case Study of CdSe

Colloidal quantum dots from cheap chemical synthesis are becoming important building blocks for constructing practical electronic devices. Here, we review some of the challenges and prospects of electronic doping of colloidal CdSe quantum dots. There are fundamental challenges to produce doped quantum dots with uniform size and composition. However, kinetics and thermodynamic argument suggests promising strategies that could be used to overcome the challenges. Doped CdSe quantum dots can be the starting point of other scientific discoveries that could be also applicable to practical devices such as quantum dot photovoltaics.