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Homogeneous ZnSeTeS quantum dots for efficient and stable pure-blue LEDs

Nature volume 639, pages 633–638 (2025)Cite this article

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Abstract

The electroluminescence performance of heavy-metal-free blue quantum dot (QD) light-emitting diodes (QLEDs) is much lower than that of state-of-the-art cadmium-based counterparts. Ecofriendly ZnSeTe QDs are an ideal alternative to cadmium-based blue QDs1,2, but face issues with colour impurity and inferior stability caused by the aggregated tellurium (Ten≥2) that dominates compositional inhomogeneity3,4. Here we developed an isoelectronic control strategy using congeneric sulfur coordinated with triphenyl phosphite (TPP-S) to construct homogeneous ZnSeTeS QDs with pure-blue emissions and near-unity photoluminescence quantum yield. TPP with low electron-donating capability promotes the reactivity balance among anionic precursors, favouring the growth of QDs with uniform composition. The acceptor-like S with high electronegativity weakens the hole localization of the Te atoms by interfering with their surrounding carriers, thereby suppressing the formation of Ten≥2 isoelectronic centres. Furthermore, the congeneric S increases the configurational entropy of the QDs and eliminates the stacking faults and oxygen defects, leading to improved structural stability and reduced non-radiative carrier density. Consequently, the resulting pure-blue QLEDs based on core–shell ZnSeTeS/ZnSe/ZnS QDs emitting at 460 nm show a high external quantum efficiency of 24.7%, a narrow linewidth of 17 nm, and long operational half-lifetime (T50) close to 30,000 hours at 100 cd cm−2, rivalling state-of-the-art cadmium-based blue QLEDs.

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Fig. 1: Characterizations of QDs.
Fig. 2: PL dynamics and structural stability of QDs.
Fig. 3: Device performance.
Fig. 4: Device stability.

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Data availability

The data supporting the findings of this study are available within the article and its Supplementary Information. The source data files are available on figshare at https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.28166900 (ref. 50). Source data are provided with this paper.

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Acknowledgements

We acknowledge financial support from the Key Research and Development Program of China (2022YFB3602902 and 2024YFB3612404), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (62174104, 61804063 and 62404131), the Program of Shanghai Academic/Technology Research Leader (22XD1421200), the Shanghai Natural Science Foundation (23ZR1423300), the Shuguang Program of Shanghai Education Development Foundation, the Shanghai Municipal Education Commission (number 22SG40), the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (2023M742197 and 2023M742198) and the Australian Research Council (ARC) Future Fellowship Scheme (GFT210100509). We thank the accelerator scientists and the staff of beamlines BL4B7A at BSRF, BL16U1at SSRF for providing the beam time and User Experiment Assist System of SSRF for their help.

Author information

Author notes

  1. These authors contributed equally: Qianqian Wu, Fan Cao

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Advanced Display and System Applications of Ministry of Education, Shanghai University, Shanghai, People’s Republic of China

    Qianqian Wu, Fan Cao, Wenke Yu, Sheng Wang, Jianhua Zhang & Xuyong Yang

  2. TCL Research, Shenzhen, People’s Republic of China

    Wenjun Hou, Zizhe Lu & Weiran Cao

  3. State Key Laboratory of Integrated Optoelectronics, Key Laboratory of Automobile Materials of MOE, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Jilin University, Changchun, People’s Republic of China

    Jiaqi Zhang & Xiaoyu Zhang

  4. Shanghai Synchrotron Radiation Facility (SSRF), Zhangjiang Lab, Shanghai Advanced Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, People’s Republic of China

    Yingguo Yang

  5. School of Microelectronics, Fudan University, Shanghai, People’s Republic of China

    Yingguo Yang

  6. School of Molecular and Life Sciences, Curtin University, Perth, Western Australia, Australia

    Guohua Jia

  7. Shanghai Engineering Research Center for Integrated Circuits and Advanced Display Materials, Shanghai, People’s Republic of China

    Xuyong Yang

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Contributions

X.Y. conceived the idea and supervised the work. Q.W., F.C. and S.W. performed most of the synthesis and characterizations of the QDs. G.J. performed the high-angle annular dark-field scanning transmission electron microscopy measurements. Q.W., W.Y., W.H., Z.L. and W.C. carried out the device fabrication and characterizations. Y.Y. carried out the X-ray absorption spectroscopy measurements and directed the data analysis. F.C. and Q.W. wrote the paper, which was revised by X.Z., Jiaqi Zhang, Jianhua Zhang and X.Y. All authors discussed the results and commented on the paper.

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Correspondence to Jiaqi Zhang, Jianhua Zhang or Xuyong Yang.

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Extended data figures and tables

Extended Data Fig. 1 Ensemble PL spectra of QD cores.

PL spectra of ZnSeTe cores with various combinations of anionic precursors. Different emissive components were assigned to Ten=1 and Ten≥2 ICs. The third Gaussian curve is caused by the PL emission from higher-order Te ICs.

Source Data

Extended Data Fig. 2 Spectroscopic analyses by XAS.

a, d, Experimental Zn K-edge XANES spectra. b, e, Fourier-transformed k-space and c, f, R-space of the experimental Zn K-edge EXAFS signals and fitting curves. The Zn K-edge for both samples show apparent peaks around ~2 Å and the same coordination number of 4, which are assigned to the Zn-Se scattering.

Source Data

Extended Data Fig. 3 XPS spectra of QD cores.

a, Te 3 d of QD-1 core film measured depth profile with different etch times. b, Te 3 d (left) and S 2p (right) of QD-2 core film measured depth profile with different etch times. c, The relative atomic content of Te and S atoms in QD-1 and QD-2 cores as a function of etching depth.

Source Data

Extended Data Fig. 4 Morphology of QD-2.

a, TEM image of QD-2 core. Scale bar, 10 nm. b, TEM images and a selected-area diffraction (SAED) pattern of C/S/S QD-2. Scale bar, 50 nm in the left and 2 nm in the bottom right corner. The average sizes of QD-2 cores and C/S/S QD-2 are 4.1 ± 0.5 nm and 10.5 ± 1.0 nm, respectively. A clear SAED pattern between the (220) and (311) diffraction planes and lattice distance of 0.32 nm in (111) plane suggest good nucleation and shell growth of QD-2. c, EDS mapping images of Zn, Se, and S elements for C/S/S QD-2.

Source Data

Extended Data Fig. 5 PL spectra of C/S/S QD-2.

PL spectra of C/S/S QD-2 with an optimal S content of 3% as a function of various Te/(Se+Te+S) ratios. CTe, from 1 mol% to 10 mol%. Inset, photograph of QD-2 solutions under UV excitation.

Source Data

Extended Data Fig. 6 Device performance of QLEDs based on QD-2.

a–d, EL spectra (a), J-L-V (b), EQE-J (c), and T50 lifetime (d) curves of ZnSeTeS-based devices at the EL peak of 468 nm.

Source Data

Extended Data Table 1 Device performance for recently reported pure blue LEDs
Full size table

Supplementary information

Supplementary Information

Supplementary Figs. 1–13 and Tables 1–4.

Source data

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Wu, Q., Cao, F., Yu, W. et al. Homogeneous ZnSeTeS quantum dots for efficient and stable pure-blue LEDs. Nature 639, 633–638 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-025-08645-4

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