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Peer-reviewedCC BY 4.0Advanced Materials (Deerfield Beach, Fla.)

Single‐Particle FRET Probes Heterogeneity in the Ligand Shell of Colloidal Perovskite Quantum Dots

  • Leon G. Feld1,2
  • Oleksandr Kolomiiets1,2
  • Noah A. Shahin1,2
  • Sebastian Sabisch1,2
  • Amrutha Rajan1,2
  • Gabriele Rainò1,2
  • Maksym V. Kovalenko1,2
  1. 1Laboratory of Inorganic Chemistry Department of Chemistry and Applied Biosciences ETH Zürich Zürich Switzerland
  2. 2Laboratory for Thin Films and Photovoltaics Empa – Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology Dübendorf Switzerland
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Abstract

The functionality of colloidal quantum dots (QDs), whether in fundamental studies, optoelectronics, or emerging quantum technologies, critically depends on their surface chemistry, with organic ligands influencing nearly every aspect of their behavior. Whereas the inorganic core can be comprehensively characterized at atomic resolution, ligands remain difficult to probe owing to their low atomic contrast and soft, disordered structure. Here, we empower single‐particle photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopy to characterize the organic ligand shell. Tagging ligand tails with organic dyes enables measuring their distance from the QD via Förster resonance energy transfer (FRET) at sub‐nanometer resolution. Single‐particle, single‐molecule FRET experiments performed on lead halide perovskite QDs reveal nanometer‐scale variations in dye‐surface distances, both within individual particles (0.81 ± 0.22 nm on average) and between QDs with varied ligand chemistries (from 0.25 to 1.02 nm). Supported by atomistic modelling, our experiments tie diverse local ligand environments to these variations, validating a powerful yet accessible spectroscopic method for interrogating the complex surface chemistry of QDs, highly relevant to QD‐based optoelectronics, quantum applications, and photocatalysis.

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Cite

BibTeXRIS
BibTeX
@article{feld2026singleparticle,
  title = {{Single‐Particle FRET Probes Heterogeneity in the Ligand Shell of Colloidal Perovskite Quantum Dots}},
  author = {Leon G. Feld and Oleksandr Kolomiiets and Noah A. Shahin and Sebastian Sabisch and Amrutha Rajan and Gabriele Rainò and Maksym V. Kovalenko},
  journal = {Advanced Materials (Deerfield Beach, Fla.)},
  year = {2026},
  month = sep,
  doi = {10.1002/adma.75051},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.1002/adma.75051},
  note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY  - JOUR
TI  - Single‐Particle FRET Probes Heterogeneity in the Ligand Shell of Colloidal Perovskite Quantum Dots
AU  - Leon G. Feld
AU  - Oleksandr Kolomiiets
AU  - Noah A. Shahin
AU  - Sebastian Sabisch
AU  - Amrutha Rajan
AU  - Gabriele Rainò
AU  - Maksym V. Kovalenko
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/09/18
JO  - Advanced Materials (Deerfield Beach, Fla.)
DO  - 10.1002/adma.75051
UR  - https://doi.org/10.1002/adma.75051
AB  - The functionality of colloidal quantum dots (QDs), whether in fundamental studies, optoelectronics, or emerging quantum technologies, critically depends on their surface chemistry, with organic ligands influencing nearly every aspect of their behavior. Whereas the inorganic core can be comprehensively characterized at atomic resolution, ligands remain difficult to probe owing to their low atomic contrast and soft, disordered structure. Here, we empower single‐particle photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopy to characterize the organic ligand shell. Tagging ligand tails with organic dyes enables measuring their distance from the QD via Förster resonance energy transfer (FRET) at sub‐nanometer resolution. Single‐particle, single‐molecule FRET experiments performed on lead halide perovskite QDs reveal nanometer‐scale variations in dye‐surface distances, both within individual particles (0.81 ± 0.22 nm on average) and between QDs with varied ligand chemistries (from 0.25 to 1.02 nm). Supported by atomistic modelling, our experiments tie diverse local ligand environments to these variations, validating a powerful yet accessible spectroscopic method for interrogating the complex surface chemistry of QDs, highly relevant to QD‐based optoelectronics, quantum applications, and photocatalysis.
SN  - 0935-9648
SN  - 1521-4095
ER  -