Synthesis of crystalline quantum dots in AOT-stabilized water-in-CO2 microemulsions

Utilization of supercritical carbon dioxide for the synthesis and processing of nanomaterials is an important issue in green nanotechnology. Although researchers have previously used water-in-CO2 (w/c) microemulsions for the synthesis of metal and semiconductor quantum dots, the high cost of the specially designed fluorinated surfactants make this non-viable industrially. In this work, we demonstrate the synthesis of Ag, AgI, and Ag2S nanoparticles with high crystallinity in the w/c microemulsions prepared using the commercially available AOT surfactant, in the presence of perfluoropentanol as co-solvent.