Chemical Synthesis, Doping, and Transformation of Magic-Sized Semiconductor Alloy Nanoclusters

Nanoclusters are important prenucleation intermediates for colloidal nanocrystal synthesis. In addition, they exhibit many intriguing properties originating from their extremely small size lying between molecules and typical nanocrystals. However, synthetic control of multicomponent semiconductor nanoclusters remains a daunting goal. Here, we report on the synthesis, doping, and transformation of multielement magic-sized clusters, generating the smallest semiconductor alloys. We use Lewis acid–base reactions at room temperature to synthesize alloy clusters containing three or four types of atoms. Mass spectrometry reveals that the alloy clusters exhibit “magic-size” characteristics with chemical formula of Zn_xCd_13–xSe₁₃ (x = 0–13) whose compositions are tunable between CdSe and ZnSe. Successful doping of these clusters creates a new class of diluted magnetic semiconductors in the extreme quantum confinement regime. Furthermore, the important role of these alloy clusters as prenucleation intermediates is demonstrated by low temperature transformation into quantum alloy nanoribbons and nanorods. Our study will facilitate the understanding of these novel diluted magnetic semiconductor nanoclusters, and offer new possibilities for the controlled synthesis of nanomaterials at the prenucleation stage, consequently producing novel multicomponent nanomaterials that are difficult to synthesize.