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    Versatile surface-active ionic liquid: construction of microemulsions and their applications in light harvesting

    Year: 2020

    Journal: Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys., Volume 22, APR 21, page 8157–8163

    Authors: Damarla, Krishnaiah; Mehra, Sanjay; Bahadur, Pratap; Ray, Debes; Aswal, V. K.; Kumar, Arvind

    Organizations: Department of Science and Technology (DST), Government of IndiaDepartment of Science & Technology (India) [EMR/2016/004747]; CSIRCouncil of Scientific & Industrial Research (CSIR) - India

    This article outlines a sustainable method towards the synthesis of advanced materials such as core/shell Quantum Dots (QDs) and their in situ stabilization using microemulsions (MEs). QDs are versatile materials which show unusual optical properties. We have constructed MEs consisting of an Ionic Liquid (IL) based surfactant i.e. choline dioctylsulfosuccinate, [Cho][AOT] as an emulsifier, toluene as a nonpolar phase and water as a polar phase. The system forms a large single-phase region in the phase diagram without any co-surfactant. Spontaneous formation of micelles has been observed and studied through tensiometry and fluorescence and isothermal titration calorimetry (ITC). The exceptional swelling behaviour of the MEs was studied using Dynamic Light Scattering (DLS) and small angle neutron scattering (SANS). In ME droplets, i.e. Reverse Micelles (RMs), we successfully synthesized spherical core/shell QDs (size similar to 3 to similar to 6 nm) with precise control over the size and morphology. The QDs have been characterized using Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM) and Powder X-ray Diffraction (PXRD). QDs stabilized in MEs exhibited excellent optical properties and can be suitably used as light harvesting materials for diverse applications.
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