Here, we present a hot injection synthesis of colloidal Ag chalcogenide nanocrystals (Ag(2)Se, Ag(2)Te, and Ag(2)S) that resulted in exceptionally small nanocrystal sizes in the range between 2 and 4 nm. Ag chalcogenide nanocrystals exhibit band gap energies within the near-infrared spectral region, making these materials promising as environmentally benign alternatives to established infrared active nanocrystals containing toxic metals such as Hg, Cd, and Pb. We present Ag(2)Se nanocrystals in detail, giving size-tunable luminescence with quantum yields above 1.7%. The luminescence, with a decay time on the order of 130 ns, was shown to improve due to the growth of a monolayer thick ZnSe shell. Photoconductivity with a quantum efficiency of 27% was achieved by blending the Ag(2)Se nanocrystals with a soluble fullerene derivative. The co-injection of lithium silylamide was found to be crucial to the synthesis of Ag chalcogenide nanocrystals, which drastically increased their nucleation rate even at relatively low growth temperatures. Because the same observation was made for the nucleation of Cd chalcogenide nanocrystals, we conclude that the addition of lithium silylamide might generally promote wet-chemical synthesis of metal chalcogenide nanocrystals, including in as-yet unexplored materials.

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Spinel chromite nanoparticles are prospective candidates for a variety of applications from catalysis to depollution. In this work, we used a sol–gel auto-combustion method to synthesize spinel-type MgCr2O4 nanoparticles by using fructose (FS), tartaric acid (TA), and hexamethylenetetramine (HMTA) as chelating/fuel agents. The optimal temperature treatment for the formation of impurity-free MgCr2O4 nanostructures was found to range from 500 to 750 °C. Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy was used to determine the lattice vibrations of the corresponding chemical bonds from octahedral and tetrahedral positions, and the optical band gap was calculated from UV–VIS spectrophotometry. The stabilization of the spinel phase was proved by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and energy-dispersive X-ray (EDX) analysis. From field-emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM), we found that the size of the constituent particles ranged from 10 to 40 nm. The catalytic activity of the as-prepared MgCr2O4 nanocrystals synthesized by using tartaric acid as a chelating/fuel agent was tested on the decomposition of hydrogen peroxide. In particular, we found that the nature of the chelating/fuel agent as well as the energy released during the auto-combustion played an important role on the structural, optical, and catalytic properties of MgCr2O4 nanoparticles obtained by this synthetic route.

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High temperature Hall effect measurements at 570-1070 K under well defined Te vapor pressure in CdTe single crystals grown by THM and Bridgman techniques were made. Both the free carrier density versus Te vapour pressure value and temperature dependencies were studied. At heating up till ~870 K the hole density was Te vapor pressure independent, but it varied in different samples from 1×1016 to 1×10 17 cm -3 . At higher temperatures the conductivity becomes of intrinsic type, turning then into n-type one. A theoretical analysis of native point defects contents at different conditions in the framework of Krögers quasichemical formalism was performed. It resulted in the impossibility of mutual compensation of native donors and acceptors proposed by different authors. The results were explained assuming the presence of an electrically active foreign point defect -the oxygen interstitial acceptor.

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