A facile, gram-scale synthesis of high-quality zinc selenide quantum dots using selenourea as the selenium source at a relatively low temperature is reported. The synthesized dots exhibit intense green emission due to donor-acceptor pair recombination of photogenerated carriers. ZnSe QDs show significant potential as nanoscale flourescent labels for biomedical imaging.

We, herein, report a facile green synthetic route for the gram-scale synthesis of high-quality thiol-derivatized zinc selenide quantum dots (QDs) using selenourea as the source of selenium at a relatively low temperature. The one-pot synthesis of colloidal dots has been achieved by selenizing zinc (II) acetate in a non-coordinating solvent medium. The structural, microstructural, optical, thermal, textural and electronic properties of the as-synthesized monodisperse ZnSe dots have been investigated in detail. We attribute the observed green emission from the dots to the donor-acceptor pair (DAP) recombination of photoexcited charge carriers. All the findings of the investigation indicate that ZnSe QDs hold great promise as a nanoscale emissive probe to unveil cellular dynamics beyond the capabilities of conventional imaging techniques.