Formation Pathway of Wurtzite-like Cu2ZnSnSe4 Nanocrystals

Polytypic metal chalcogenide nanocrystals

By engineering chemically identical but structurally distinct materials into intricate and sophisticated polytypic nanostructures, which often surpass their pure phase objects and even produce novel physical and chemical properties, exciting applications in the fields of photovoltaics, electronics and photocatalysis can be achieved. In recent decades, various methods have been developed for synthesizing a library of polytypic nanocrystals encompassing IV, III-V and II-VI polytypic semiconductors. The exceptional performances of polytypic metal chalcogenide nanocrystals have been observed, making them highly promising candidates for applications in photonics and electronics. However, achieving high-precision control over the morphology, composition, crystal structure, size, homojunctions, and periodicity of polytypic metal chalcogenide nanostructures remains a significant synthetic challenge. This review article offers a comprehensive overview of recent progress in the synthesis and control of polytypic metal chalcogenide nanocrystals using colloidal synthetic strategies. Starting from a concise introduction on the crystal structures of metal chalcogenides, the subsequent discussion delves into the colloidal synthesis of polytypic metal chalcogenide nanocrystals, followed by an in-depth exploration of the key factors governing polytypic structure construction. Subsequently, we provide comprehensive insights into the physical properties of polytypic metal chalcogenide nanocrystals, which exhibit strong correlations with their applications. Thereafter, we emphasize the significance of polytypic nanostructures in various applications, such as photovoltaics, photocatalysis, transistors, thermoelectrics, stress sensors, and the electrocatalytic hydrogen evolution. Finally, we present a summary of the recent advancements in this research field and provide insightful perspectives on the forthcoming challenges, opportunities, and future research directions.

Predictive Synthesis of Copper Selenides Using a Multidimensional Phase Map Constructed with a Data-Driven Classifier

Copper selenides are an important family of materials with applications in catalysis, plasmonics, photovoltaics, and thermoelectrics. Despite being a binary material system, the Cu-Se phase diagram is complex and contains multiple crystal structures in addition to several metastable structures that are not found on the thermodynamic phase diagram. Consequently, the ability to synthetically navigate this complex phase space poses a significant challenge. We demonstrate that data-driven learning can successfully map this phase space in a minimal number of experiments. We combine soft chemistry (chimie douce) synthetic methods with multivariate analyses via classification techniques to enable predictive phase determination. A surrogate model was constructed with experimental data derived from a design matrix of four experimental variables: C-Se bond strength of the selenium precursor, time, temperature, and solvent composition. The reactions in the surrogate model resulted in 11 distinct phase combinations of copper selenide. These data were used to train a classification model that predicts the phase with 95.7% accuracy. The resulting decision tree enabled conclusions to be drawn about how the experimental variables affect the phase and provided prescriptive synthetic conditions for specific phase isolation. This guided the accelerated phase targeting in a minimum number of experiments of klockmannite CuSe, which could not be isolated in any of the reactions used to construct the surrogate model. The reaction conditions that the model predicted to synthesize klockmannite CuSe were experimentally validated, highlighting the utility of this approach.

Polymorphic Control of Solution-Processed Cu2SnS3 Films with Thiol-Amine Ink Formulation

There is increasing demand for tailored molecular inks that produce phase-pure solution-processed semiconductor films. Within the Cu-Sn-S phase space, Cu₂SnS₃ belongs to the I₂-IV-VI₃ class of semiconductors that crystallizes in several different polymorphs. We report the ability of thiol-amine solvent mixtures to dissolve inexpensive bulk Cu₂S and SnO precursors to generate free-flowing molecular inks. Upon mild annealing, polymorphic control over phase-pure tetragonal (I4̅2m) and orthorhombic (Cmc2₁) Cu₂SnS₃ films was realized simply by switching the identity of the thiol (i.e., 1,2-ethanedithiol vs 2-mercaptoethanol, respectively). Polymorph control is dictated by differences in the resulting molecular metal-thiolate complexes and their subsequent decomposition profiles, which likely seed distinct Cu_2-x S phases that template the ternary sulfide sublattice. The p-type tetragonal and orthorhombic Cu₂SnS₃ films possess similar experimental direct optical band gaps of 0.94 and 0.88 eV, respectively, and strong photoelectrochemical current responses. Understanding how ink formulation dictates polymorph choice should inform the development of other thiol-amine inks for solution-processed films.

Ultra-mild synthesis of nanometric metal chalcogenides using organyl chalcogenide precursors

Bis(trialkylsilyl) monochalcogenides and diorganyl dichalcogenides, (R₃Si)₂E and R₂E₂ (E = S, Se or Te and R = alkyl, aryl or allyl group), have emerged in the past decade as excellent reagents for the synthesis of metal chalcogenide nanoparticles (NPs) and clusters owing to their ability to transfer the chalcogenide anion (E^2-) under ultra-mild conditions and versatility in reacting even with non-conventional metal reagents or being employed in a variety of synthetic methods. In comparison, the related non-silylated diorganyl monochalcogenides R₂E have received attention only recently for the solution phase synthesis of metal chalcogenide NPs. In spite of sharing many similarities, these three families of organyl chalcogenides are different in their coordination ability and decomposition behavior, and therefore in reactivities towards metal reagents. This feature article provides a concise overview on the use of these three families as synthons for the ultralow-temperature synthesis of metal chalcogenide nanomaterials, deliberating their different decomposition mechanisms and critically assessing their advantages for certain applications. More specifically, it discusses their usefulness in (i) affording molecular precursors with different kinetic and thermal stabilities, (ii) isolating reactive intermediates for comprehending the mechanism of molecule-to-nanoparticle transformation and, therefore, achieving fine control over the synthesis, (iii) stabilizing isolable metastable or difficult-to-achieve phases, and (iv) yielding complex ternary nanoparticles with controlled stoichiometry or composites with sensitive materials without modifying the characteristics of the latter. Besides providing a perspective on the low-temperature synthesis of nanomaterials, this overview is expected to assist further progress, particularly in the field of R₂E, leading to interesting materials including metastable ones for new applications.