Effect of Surface Stabilizers on the Optical Properties of ZnSe/ZnS:Mn/ZnS Nanocrystals

Thi Diem Bui (Faculty of Chemical Engineering, Industrial University of Ho Chi Minh City, Ho Chi Minh City 70000)
Quang Liem Nguyen (Institute of Materials Science, Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology, 18 Hoang Quoc Viet, Hanoi 10000)
Nguyen Van Cuong (Faculty of Chemical Engineering, Industrial University of Ho Chi Minh City, Ho Chi Minh City 70000)
Trong Tang Nguyen (Faculty of Chemical Engineering, Industrial University of Ho Chi Minh City, Ho Chi Minh City 70000)

Bulletin of Chemical Reaction Engineering & Catalysis
2025: BCREC Volume 20 Issue 4 Year 2025 (December 2025)

In this study, we produced nano-sized, spherical ZnSe/ZnS:Mn/ZnS in a non-toxic aqueous solvent with surface stabilizers such as 3-mercaptopropionic acid (MPA), polyethylene glycol (PEG), and starch. These surface stabilizers aid to prevent agglomeration and passivation, thereby stabilizing the nanoparticle surface. ZnSe/ZnS:Mn/ZnS nanocrystals (NCs) are cubic in structure. Changing the surface stabilizer and doping Mn metal does not alter the structure of the ZnSe base material, but it boosts fluorescence efficiency by 2.2 - 3.9 times. The fluorescence efficiency of ZnSe/ZnS:Mn/ZnS MPA NCs using MPA stabilizer is 73.95%, which is higher than the fluorescence efficiency of ZnSe/ZnS:Mn/ZnS Starch NCs (57.35%) using Starch stabilizer and higher than the fluorescence efficiency of ZnSe/ZnS:Mn/ZnS PEG NCs (41.72%) using PEG stabilizer. ZnSe/ZnS:Mn/ZnS MPA NCs are originally assessed for their potential use in biomedical applications. Copyright © 2025 by Authors, Published by BCREC Publishing Group. This is an open access article under the CC BY-SA License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0).