Emission tunable AgInS2 quantum dots synthesized via microwave method for white light-emitting diodes application

Microwave organic phase preparation of AgInS 2 quantum dots (QDs) is extremely essential to the large-scale, green and efficient preparation of AgInS 2 QDs. Here, commercial glycerol is used as the microwave absorber to prepare AgInS 2 QDs in nonpolar organic solvent octadecene at reaction temperature range of 100–180 °C. The AgInS 2 QDs can be obtained within 15 min and exhibit tunable photoluminescent properties. After decorating by ZnS layer, the prepared AgInS 2 @ZnS core/shell QDs emitted a bright orange-yellow light under ultraviolet light irradiation, and its quantum yield increased from 13.66% to 33.10%. Moreover, it exhibited excellent spectral tunability among the range of 608.0 nm–549.8 nm with the molar ratios of Zn/AgIn changed from 0 to 3. Finally, a WLED was fabricated by combining AgInS 2 @ZnS QDs and Y 3 Al 5-x Ga x O 12 :Ce 3+ phosphors with a blue chip, the color rendering index (CRI), correlated color temperature (CCT), and luminous efficiency (LE) of the device was 87.6, 3361 K, and 58.83 lm/W, respectively, indicating the great application prospect in illumination. The research explores a novel avenue for the fast and efficient synthesis of I–III–VI semiconductor QDs in nonpolar solvent via microwave method.