However, qualitatively their observations on the effect of ligand length appear to agree with our own results. Their findings indicate that the ligand exchange reaction from bent-chain oleates (18 carbons) to straight-chain alkylthiolates becomes more exothermic as the alkythiolate ligand chains become longer, which is consistent with our results comparing myristate and stearate exchanges. Elimelech et al. also observed that the ligand exchange reaction becomes less exothermic as the quantum dot size increases. This finding is attributed to low surface curvature causing coordinating oleate ligands to pack more closely creating less favorable geometries for alkylthiolates to penetrate the ligand shell. This conclusion is supported by work by Ravi et al., which proposes that there is an increase in reactive facets on gold nanoparticles as size decreases resulting in a more exothermic reaction. However, comparisons of that work to colloidal quantum dots in organic solvents may be limited due to the highly variable particle sizes, short capping alkyl chains, and aqueous reaction environment.