Controlling synthesis of PbS nanostructures in surfactant solutions

PbS dendritic nanostructures have been successfully synthesized by a facile method from solutions containing a nonionic surfactant, Triton X-100 (t-octyl-(OCH₂CH₂)_xOH, x = 9, 10) under the ambient pressure. The anisotropic structural evolution of semiconductor PbS nanocrystals and the systematically elucidated key growth parameters for their shape control were studied. Through simply programming growth parameters such as aging time and capping molecules in the initial scheme, desired architecture of building blocks including nanorods, nanodendrities and nanocubes can be consistently obtained. Considering that the size and morphology of such semiconductors very strongly affect their applications, there will be significant advances that can be applied to the nanoscale devices.