Flexible Amine Based Selenium Dissolution Free From Contaminants

Selenide nanoparticles are important materials with applications in electronics, solar cells, light emitting diodes (LEDs), and biology. Making selenide particles first starts with the dissolution of elemental selenium with a reaction solvent. Current methods for making dissolved selenium, such as using organo-phosphine compounds or sodium borohydrine, are costly, unstable, and lead to contaminated, impure selenium solutions.

Researchers at Purdue University have developed a new method to control the dissolution of elemental selenium into a pure selenium solution. This method involves making a highly reducing atmosphere, which then solvates the selenium. The resulting reaction can be controlled and tuned to produce a range of desired solutions. This also provides opportunities to conduct additional chemical reactions with a pure selenium solution and create mixed chalcogen materials.

Advantages:

-Free of contaminants and impurities

-Flexible and controllable

-More stable and less costly

Potential Applications:

-Electronics

-Solar cells

-LEDs

TRL: 3

Intellectual Property:

Keywords: Selenide nanoparticles, electronics applications, solar cells, LEDs, dissolved selenium, pure selenium solution, highly reducing atmosphere, solvated selenium, controlled reaction, mixed chalcogen materials, Chemical Engineering, LEDs, Materials and Manufacturing, Nanoparticles, Semiconductors, Solar