Semiconductor nanocrystal materials have demonstrated their use across a range of optoelectronic applications. The size tunability, narrow emission linewidths, strong absorption and high quantum yield of nanomaterials platforms are desirable properties for numerous types of devices. While the core of a nanocrystal determines many of its characteristic properties, these properties can be sensitive to disruption by defects at the surface of the nanocrystal. To address this capping ligands can be incorporated on the nanomaterial surface, which can play various roles, including passivating dangling surface bonds, ensuring charge balance, and promoting the stability of the particles.

The critical role of these ligands is behind the extensive research in this area. To really understand the nature and role of these ligands, how they come on and off, and their ability to modulate the properties of these particles, one needs to understand how the ligands bind to the metal particle.

In this collaboration between the IMOD Cossairt Group (University of Washington) and the Khalil Group (University of Washington), a method is presented to measure how strongly ligands bind to semiconductor nanocrystals.