Phosphine-free synthesis of monodisperse CdSe nanocrystals in olive oil

A new method that uses inexpensive and harmless olive oil as the coordinating solvent and eliminates the need for air-sensitive and toxic trioctylphosphine ( TOP), which is commonly used for CdSe nanocrystal synthesis, is presented for the synthesis of highly monodispersed CdSe nanocrystals ranging in diameter between 2.3 - 6.0 nm which emit over the broad spectral range from 485 to 640 nm with quantum efficiencies of purely band-edge luminescence (FWHM 24 - 31 nm) as high as 15%.