High-pressure phase transformation of platinum sulfide

Alkyne-Functionalized Platinum Chalcogenide (S, Se) Nanoparticles

Metal chalcogenide nanoparticles play a vital role in a wide range of applications and are typically stabilized by organic derivatives containing thiol, amine, or carboxyl moieties, where the nonconjugated particle-ligand interfaces limit the electronic interactions between the inorganic cores and organic ligands. Herein, a wet-chemistry method is developed for the facile preparation of stable platinum chalcogenide (S, Se) nanoparticles capped with acetylene derivatives (e.g., 4-ethylphenylacetylene, EPA). The formation of Pt-C≡ conjugated bonds at the nanoparticle interfaces, which is confirmed by optical and X-ray spectroscopic measurements, leads to markedly enhanced electronic interactions between the d electrons of the nanoparticle cores and π electrons of the acetylene moiety, in stark contrast to the mercapto-capped counterparts with only nonconjugated Pt-S- interfacial bonds, as manifested in spectroscopic measurements and density functional theory calculations. This study underscores the significance of conjugated anchoring linkages in the stabilization and functionalization of metal chalcogenides, a unique strategy for diverse applications.

Reconstruction of Cooperite (PtS) Surfaces: A DFT-D+U Study

Cooperite (PtS) is one of the main sources of platinum in the world and has not been given much attention, in particular from the computational aspect. Besides, the surface stability of cooperite is not fully understood, in particular the preferred surface cleavage. In the current study, we employed computer modeling methods within the plane-wave framework of density functional theory with dispersion correction and the U parameter to correctly predict the bulk and surface properties. We reconstructed and calculated the geometries and surface energies of (001), (100), (101), (112), (110), (111), and (211) cooperite surfaces of stoichiometric planes. The Pt d-orbitals with U = 4.5 eV and S p-orbitals with U = 5.5 eV were found optimum to correctly predict a band gap of 1.408 eV for the bulk cooperite model, which agreed with an experimental value of 1.41 eV. The PtS-, Pt-, and S-terminated surfaces were investigated. The structural and electronic properties of the reconstructed surfaces were discussed in detail. We observed one major mechanism of relaxation of cooperite surface reconstructions that emerged from this study, which was the formation of Pt-Pt bonds. It emanated that the (110) and (111) cooperite surfaces underwent significant reconstruction in which the Pt²⁺ cation relaxed into the surface, forming new Pt-Pt (Pt₂ ²⁺) bonds. Similar behavior was perceived for (101) and (211) surfaces, where the Pt²⁺ cation relaxed inward and sideways on the surface, forming new Pt-Pt (Pt₂ ²⁺) bonds. The surface stability decreased in the order (101) > (100) ≈ (112) > (211) > (111) > (110) > (001), indicating that the (101) surface was the most stable, leading to an octahedron cooperite crystal morphology with truncated corners under equilibrium conditions. However, the electronic structures indicated that the chemical reactivity stability of the surfaces would be determined by band gaps. It was found that the (112) surface had a larger band gap than the other surfaces and thus was a chemical stability competitor to the (101) surface. In addition, it was established that the surfaces had different reactivities, which largely depended on the atomic coordination and charge state based on population atomic charges. This study has shown that cooperite has many planes/surface cleavages as determined by the computed crystal morphology, which is in agreement with experimental X-ray diffraction (XRD) pattern findings and the formation of irregular morphology shapes.

Peel-and-Stick Integration of Atomically Thin Nonlayered PtS Semiconductors for Multidimensionally Stretchable Electronic Devices

Various near-atom-thickness two-dimensional (2D) van der Waals (vdW) crystals with unparalleled electromechanical properties have been explored for transformative devices. Currently, the availability of 2D vdW crystals is rather limited in nature as they are only obtained from certain mother crystals with intrinsically possessed layered crystallinity and anisotropic molecular bonding. Recent efforts to transform conventionally non-vdW three-dimensional (3D) crystals into ultrathin 2D-like structures have seen rapid developments to explore device building blocks of unique form factors. Herein, we explore a "peel-and-stick" approach, where a nonlayered 3D platinum sulfide (PtS) crystal, traditionally known as a cooperate mineral material, is transformed into a freestanding 2D-like membrane for electromechanical applications. The ultrathin (∼10 nm) 3D PtS films grown on large-area (>cm²) silicon dioxide/silicon (SiO₂/Si) wafers are precisely "peeled" inside water retaining desired geometries via a capillary-force-driven surface wettability control. Subsequently, they are "sticked" on strain-engineered patterned substrates presenting prominent semiconducting properties, i.e., p-type transport with an optical band gap of ∼1.24 eV. A variety of mechanically deformable strain-invariant electronic devices have been demonstrated by this peel-and-stick method, including biaxially stretchable photodetectors and respiratory sensing face masks. This study offers new opportunities of 2D-like nonlayered semiconducting crystals for emerging mechanically reconfigurable and stretchable device technologies.

Synthesis and characterisation of thin-film platinum disulfide and platinum sulfide

Group-10 transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) are rising in prominence within the highly innovative field of 2D materials. While PtS₂ has been investigated for potential electronic applications, due to its high charge-carrier mobility and strongly layer-dependent bandgap, it has proven to be one of the more difficult TMDs to synthesise. In contrast to most TMDs, Pt has a significantly more stable monosulfide, the non-layered PtS. The existence of two stable platinum sulfides, sometimes within the same sample, has resulted in much confusion between the materials in the literature. Neither of these Pt sulfides have been thoroughly characterised as-of-yet. Here we utilise time-efficient, scalable methods to synthesise high-quality thin films of both Pt sulfides on a variety of substrates. The competing nature of the sulfides and limited thermal stability of these materials is demonstrated. We report peak-fitted X-ray photoelectron spectra, and Raman spectra using a variety of laser wavelengths, for both materials. This systematic characterisation provides a guide to differentiate between the sulfides using relatively simple methods which is essential to enable future work on these interesting materials.

Surface-State Assisted Carrier Recombination and Optical Nonlinearities in Bulk to 2D Nonlayered PtS

Cooperite, or platinum sulfide (PtS), is a rare mineral that generally exists as microscale, irregularly shaped crystallites. The presence of impurities, in both naturally occurring and synthesized samples, has hindered the study of its optical properties in the past. In this work, we prepare large-scale, uniform PtS films in bulk to two-dimensional form through the thermally assisted conversion method. An abnormal trend is observed in linear spectral studies whereby the optical bandgap narrows as the film thickness decreases. A model based on the continuous distribution of carriers in real space, which can be regarded as a quantum well normal to the plane, is used to describe the thickness-dependent carrier recombination phenomenon. In the nonlinear optical measurements, PtS exhibits ultrafast saturable absorption and self-defocusing properties in the visible region, which are dominated by the resonant electronic nonlinearities.

Negative linear compressibility

While all materials reduce their intrinsic volume under hydrostatic (uniform) compression, a select few actually expand along one or more directions during this process of densification.