Controlling Phase in Colloidal Synthesis

Abstract

A fundamental precept of chemistry is that properties are manifestations of the elements present and their arrangement in space. Controlling the arrangement of atoms in nanocrystals is not well understood in nanocrystal synthesis, especially in the transition metal chalcogenides and pnictides, which have rich phase spaces. This Perspective will cover some of the recent advances and current challenges. The perspective includes introductions to challenges particular to chalcogenide and pnictide chemistry, the often-convoluted roles of bond dissociation energies and mechanisms by which precursors break down, using very organized methods to map the synthetic phase space, a discussion of polytype control, and challenges in characterization, especially for solving novel structures on the nanoscale and time-resolved studies.

Rational Phase Control in the Synthesis of Cobalt Sulfides

“…Using this rationale, six out of the eight iron sulfides were prepared with a high degree of phase purity. The next step is to discover whether the discovered patterns for phase control extend beyond the iron sulfides . If such trends are found to be generalizable across other transition-metal sulfides, then predictable, algorithmic synthesis methods for many binary compounds may be realized.…”