Kinetic Growth of Ultralong Metastable Zincblende MnSe Nanowires Catalyzed by a Fast Ionic Conductor via a Solution–Solid–Solid Mechanism

Abstract

The metastable semiconductor phase allows for the exploration of unusual properties and functionalities of abnormal structures, although it is often difficult to prevent thermodynamic transformations to lower energy structures from higher, unfavored energy states. Here, we show for the first time the preparation of high-quality ultralong metastable zincblende (ZB)-MnSe nanowires with a four-coordinate structure via solution-solid-solid (SSS) growth in a mild solution-phase synthetic environment (120-220 °C) in the presence of a trace amount of Ag(I). The metastable ZB-MnSe nanowires are stabilized kinetically due to the catalysis of early formed body-centered cubic (bcc) fast-ionic (superionic) Ag2Se nanocrystals from the Ag(I) source, and the ZB-MnSe nanowires grow epitaxially along the ⟨110⟩ axis rather than the ⟨111⟩ axis, as commonly observed for typical four-coordinate Grimm-Sommerfeld bonding solids. Our method provides a new route for the growth of metastable nanostructures.

Ni/Fe Ratio Dependence of Catalytic Activity in Monodisperse Ternary Nickel Iron Phosphide for Efficient Water Oxidation

“…Nevertheless, the relative scarcity and high cost hamper their widespread applications severely. Although a variety of nonprecious electrocatalysts for water oxidation and hydrogen evolution including metal phosphide, metal oxides, hydroxides, selenides and composite carbon materials have been discovered with comparable activity as low‐cost alternatives, most of them still suffer from large overpotential for good OER activity, and substantial progress is still required to improve the activity and stability of the OER catalysts.…”

Low‐Resistance Porous Nanocellular MnSe Electrodes for High‐Performance All‐Solid‐State Battery‐Supercapacitor Hybrid Devices

“…However, it is difficult to synthesize MnSe nanostructures owing to the harsh growth conditions especially in liquid solutions. To the best of our knowledge, very few MnSe nanostructures have been prepared so far, including α‐MnSe nanocubes and nanoparticles, β‐MnSe nanowires, and γ‐MnSe nanorods . Du et al synthesized α‐MnSe nanocubes for Li‐ion battery anode, exhibiting a rather low voltage plateau and good cycle stability.…”

Synthesis of alloyed Zn1–xMnxS nanowires with completely controlled compositions and tunable bandgaps

“…The solution-solid-solid (SSS) growth has shown great convenience in synthesis of various binary chalcogenide nanowires [24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33] and even ternary Zn x Cd 1Àx S 16,18 nanowires with superionic conductors such as Ag 2 S, Ag 2 Se and Cu 2Àx S as catalysts. Previously, we have synthesized the ZnS nanowires 16 and MnS nanowires 25 via the SSS route using Ag 2 S nanoparticles as the catalysts, and the adopted precursors were metalorganic [(C 4 H 9 ) 2 NCS 2 ] 2 Zn and [(C 4 H 9 ) 2 NCS 2 ] 2 Mn, respectively.…”