Observation of Direct and Indirect Effects of Surface Stabilizer on the Attenuation Coefficient of CdTe Nanoplatelet Films


Bubenov S. Ospanova A. Vinokurov A. Kainarbay A. Akhmetova A. Cherednichenko K. Daurenbekov D. Dorofeev S.
November 2025Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute (MDPI)

Nanomaterials
2025#15Issue 22

Absorption spectra are widely used in laboratory practice to measure the content of a great variety of colloidal semiconductor nanocrystals. In the case of atomically thin nanoplatelets, only CdSe has been studied enough to allow such quantification, while CdTe nanoplatelets—a promising material for photodetection—are understudied in this regard. In this work, a powerful combination of total XRF spectroscopy, absorption spectroscopy and profilometry was employed for thin films to extract the absorption coefficient values. The morphology and surface composition of nanoplatelets were studied with TEM and IR spectroscopy. The molar absorption coefficient of oleate-terminated CdTe nanoplatelets at the first optical transition was measured at about 5 × 104 L·mol−1·cm−1 (per mole of Te), which is among the highest values for AIIBVI nanomaterials. The exchange of stabilizer with hexadecanethiol induced an approximately 5-fold decrease in the volume fraction of semiconductor material in thin films and a 5-fold decrease in absorbance. The latter effect is linked to the formation of a quasi-type II heterojunction between CdTe cores and effectively half of a monolayer shell of CdS. The density effect is explained by the diminished capacity of nanoscrolls for close packing. The combination of XRF and profilometry is proposed as a technique for fast nanomorphology evaluation.

absorption coefficient , CdTe , film , ligand exchange , nanoplatelets , total X-ray fluorescence

Text of the article Перейти на текст статьи

Department of Chemistry, Lomonosov Moscow State University, Leninskie Gory 1–3, Moscow, 119991, Russian Federation
Institute of Physical and Technical Sciences, L.N. Gumilyov Eurasian National University, Kazhymukan Str. 13, Astana, 010000, Kazakhstan

Department of Chemistry
Institute of Physical and Technical Sciences

10 лет помогаем публиковать статьи Международный издатель

Книга Публикация научной статьи Волощук 2026 Book Publication of a scientific article 2026