Effects of electron tunneling and nonresonance quenching of photoluminescence in semiconducting CdSe/ZnS AND CdSe nanocrystals by porphyrin molecules in joint complexes

The quenching of photoluminescence (PL) in semiconducting CdSe/ZnS and CdSe nanocrystals (NC) of various sizes during surface passivation by molecules of tetrapyridylporphyrins (P) in toluene at 295 K was investigated. It was shown that resonance transfer of energy NC → P plays a minor role in PL quenching (<10%), while photoinduced electron transfer NC → P is absent. On the basis of experimental data and quantum-mechanical calculations it was established that with identical molar ratio x = C P /C NC the probability of quenching k q decreases with increase in the size of the NC while the PL quenching process itself under conditions of quantum confinement is due to electron tunneling of the excited electron–hole pair on the surface of the NC followed by localization of the organic ligand (P) on anchor groups. The obtained results are of interest for investigating the mechanisms of the blinking of PL in single semiconductor nanocrystals.