Figure 5.

Schematic overview of the CdSe NPL growth mechanism. (A): Nanoparticles nucleate and grow. An order of magnitude more QDs are formed than NPLs. Middle (B): The addition of acetate results in faster monomer consumption. With the reaction conditions used here, most monomers are consumed by growth of the small facets of the NPL (red arrows). As a result, the NPLs grow laterally, and the QDs do not grow much (D). The concentration of QDs and NPLs is unaffected by the addition of an acetate. Middle (C): If no acetate is added, both QDs and mini-NPLs grow with a comparable monomer consumption (red arrows). This way the NPLs remain small, and slightly larger QDs are obtained compared to with the addition of acetate (E).