Open Access Conference Proceedings

This study investigated the stabilization of cadmium sulfide (CdS) nanoparticles in aqueous solutions of the triblock copolymer Pluronic P123. The concentration of the added cadmium sulfide varied between 0.002 and 0.02 M. For the synthesis, sodium sulfide and cadmium chloride were both dissolved in aqueous P123 solutions with concentrations of 23 and 30 weight percent (wtp) of polymers. Both solutions were cooled to low temperatures and mixed in a heated sample cell. The stabilization of CdS nanoparticles was successful for both P123 concentrations. The stabilized nanoparticle-polymer solutions were investigated using ultraviolet-visible spectroscopy (UV-Vis) and small- and wide-angle-x-ray-scattering (SAXS/ WAXS). In the absorption spectra measured by UV-Vis spectroscopy, no shift of the absorption edge, depending of the CdS concentration in solution is visible indicating a bulk like behavior. SAXS showed, that the distance between the Pluronic micelles is not changing in the lyotropic liquid crystal (LC) phase by adding CdS, but a significant rise of the scattering intensity was visible. We assume, that the nanoparticles are located in the micellar core. As proved by WAXS, in some cases even crystalline nanoparticles could be produced. This sample system consisting of polymeric micelles and nanoparticles can be seen as a model for studying the formation of nanoparticles because the crystallization process of the nanoparticles was enlarged form a timescale of nanoseconds to minutes.

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