Chemical Synthesis and Applications of Colloidal Metal Phosphide Nanocrystals

Abstract

Colloidal nanocrystals (NCs) have emerged as promising materials in optoelectronic devices and biological imaging application due to their tailorable properties through size, shape, and composition. Among these NCs, metal phosphide is an important class, in parallel with metal chalcogenide. In this review, we summarize the recent progress regarding the chemical synthesis and applications of colloidal metal phosphide NCs. As the most important metal phosphide NCs, indium phosphide (InP) NCs have been intensively investigated because of their low toxicity, wide and tunable emission range from visible to the near-infrared region. Firstly, we give a brief overview of synthetic strategies to InP NCs, highlighting the benefit of employing zinc precursors as reaction additive and the importance of different phosphorus precursors to improve the quality of the InP NCs, in terms of size distribution, quantum yield, colloidal stability, and non-blinking behavior. Next, we discuss additional synthetic techniques to overcome the issues of lattice mismatch in the synthesis of core/shell metal phosphide NCs, by constructing an intermediate layer between core/shell or designing a shell with gradient composition in a radial direction. We also envision future research directions of InP NCs. The chemical synthesis of other metal phosphide NCs, such as II–V metal phosphide NCs (Cd3P2, Zn3P2) and transition metal phosphides NCs (Cu3P, FeP) is subsequently introduced. We finally discuss the potential applications of colloidal metal phosphide NCs in photovoltaics, light-emitting diodes, and lithium ion battery. An overview of several key applications based on colloidal metal phosphide NCs is provided at the end.

Frontiers in the solution-phase chemistry of homoatomic group 15 Zintl clusters

“…Functionalisation and subsequent reactivity studies with [P 7 ] 3− allows for solution state monitoring of chemistry that can later be exemplified with larger poly-phosphides and possibly even red phosphorus. Further, metal pnictogenides are finding increasing applications in electrochemical water-splitting cells and carbon dioxide reduction reaction, [75][76][77] however an in situ study of these transformations remains a challenge. Preparing well defined reactive sites at these clusters followed by immobilisation could allow for a more systematic study of this work.…”

“…78,79 By extending these methods to the group 15 systems, group 15 Zintl clusters have prospects as wetchemical precursors for pnitogen-containing nanomorphologies, with potential applications in electronics, in lithium-ion batteries, and as light emitting diodes. 75 Along with developing better single-precursor methods to prepare known materials, recent advances in polybismuthide chemistry 29,30 will pave the way to prepare new materials.…”

Chemical Vapor Deposition and Thermal Oxidation of Cuprous Phosphide Nanofilm

“…Copper compounds generally show ptype properties, such as cuprous oxide, cuprous sulfide and cuprous halide [5][6][7], and cuprous phosphide (Cu 3 P) is one of them. Cuprous phosphide is a p-type, narrow band gap semiconductor with an energy gap of about 1.6 eV [8][9][10][11], which is of potential applications in light-emitting diodes, photodetectors, sensors and catalysis [12][13][14][15][16][17][18]. The morphologies of cuprous phosphide reported are usually thick film or nanosheets.…”

Ternary ACd4P3 (A = Na, K) Nanostructures via a Hydride Solution-Phase Route

“…Soft chemistry synthetic techniques can offer advantages such as the ability to prepare smaller particles with a higher surface area, as well as the ability to selectively prepare metastable or “kinetic” phases that may not be isolable through higher-temperature, solid-state reactions. In addition, the ability to control particle size and surface chemistry can play a vital role in enhancing a material’s performance in solar cells, batteries, and thermoelectrics. − Examples of transition metal pnictides prepared by soft chemistry include InP and II 3 –V 2 (II = Zn, Cd; V = P, As) nanocrystals, some of which are important in near-infrared (IR) imaging, detectors and lasers. − Colloidal MnPn nanocrystals (Pn = As, Sb) display ferromagnetic properties. , …”