Confinement Synthesis of Metal Chalcogenide Quantum Dots within a Porous Organic Cage

We report the first successful encapsulation of metal chalcogenide nanocrystals within the largest purely organic cage to date, comprising of twelve highly light absorbing porphyrin units. The confinement synthesis yielded nanocrystals below Bohr exciton radius of cadmium sulfide. Optical and electrochemical measurements revealed the cage ligand transfers its excited state energy to the encapsulated nanocrystal core, resulting in a 5-fold increase in photoelectrochemical water splitting efficiency compared to traditional oleic acid capped CdS nanocrystals.