Synthesis and Characterization of Copper Selenide Quantum Dots for Photocatalytic Application

Copper Selenide quantum dots were prepared by a simple wet chemical method known as the reflux condensation method from which uniform-sized crystalline nanocrystals were obtained. The resultant nanocrystals strong confinement, phase shift, morphology, and purity has been found with the use of characterization technique such as by X-ray diffraction (XRD), UV–Visible spectroscopy (UV–Vis), Photo-luminescent spectroscopy (PL), Raman Shift (RS) and Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM). The Experimental investigation of XRD, SEM reveals that the CuSe obtained are with high crystalline crystals which exhibits hexagonal structure and the diameter ranges from 10-15nm. The UV-Vis and PL studies revealed that there is a large "blue shift". Hence by this large shift, the material can be used for Photo-degradation and Photocatalytic activity. The photocatalytic activity was done with the Rhodamine B Dye (RhB). The result shows an effective degradation of 83%. Future nanocrystals can be used for developing potential electronic devices such as solar cells.