With increasing energy demands, nonrenewable resources need to be replaced with highly efficient, environmentally friendly, and inexpensive renewable energy sources. Although solar energy is not a novel technology, the advancement of nanotechnologies incorporating light absorbing nanoparticles has opened a new field. Our group is exploring the generation of CdSe nanoparticles, functionalized by a conjugated organic ligand, for impregnation into bulk heterojunction, polymeric thin films. Here we report a size controlled synthesis of CdSe nanoparticles and assess the qualities of our chosen binding ligand. We have focused research on dithioate ligands, which have strong binding affinity to the CdSe nanoparticles, and the ability to covalently graft to tetraaniline nanotethers to enhance charge transport. Fluorescence spectroscopy, Uv-vis spectroscopy, and atomic force microscopy (AFM) were used to confirm successful nanoparticle syntheses and to characterize the size distribution of nanoparticles. Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) studies were used to determine the identities of ligands and the extent of coordination to the nanoparticles.