Shape‐ and Phase‐Controlled Synthesis of Monodisperse, Single‐Crystalline Ternary Chalcogenide Colloids through a Convenient Solution Synthesis Strategy

Abstract

Colloidal, monodisperse, single-crystalline pyramidal CuInS2 and rectangular AgInS2 nanocrystals were successfully synthesized through a convenient and improved solvothermal process that uses hexadecylamine as a capping reagent. The crystal phase, morphology, crystal lattice, and chemical composition of the as-prepared products were characterized by using X-ray diffraction, transmission electron microscopy (TEM), high-resolution TEM, and energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy. Results revealed that the as-synthesized CuInS2 colloid is in the tetragonal phase (size: 13-17 nm) and the AgInS2 in the orthorhombic structure (size: 17+/-0.5 nm). A possible shape evolution and crystal growth mechanism has been suggested for the formation of pyramidal CuInS2 and rectangular AgInS2 colloids. Control experiments indicated that the morphology- and/or phase-change of CuInS2 and orthorhombic AgInS2 colloids are temperature- and/or time-dependent. CuInS2 colloids absorb well in the range of visible light at room-temperature, indicating its potential application as a solar absorber. Two photoluminescence (PL) subbands at 1.938 and 2.384 eV in the PL spectra of CuInS2 colloids revealed that the recombination of the closest and the second closest donor-acceptor pairs within the CuInS2 lattice, in which the donor defect (Cui) occupies an interstitial position and the acceptor defect (VIn) resides at an adjacent cation site. In addition, the synthesis strategy developed in this study is convenient and inexpensive, and could also be used as a general process for the synthesis of other pure or doped ternary chalcogenides that require a controlled size (or shape). This process could be extended to the synthesis of other functional nanomaterials.

One-pot thermolysis synthesis of CuInS2 nanoparticles with chalcopyrite-wurtzite polytypism structure

“…Thiourea was selected as a soft Lewis base that can react with Cu ? as soft Lewis acid and simultaneously as a source of sulfide ion [23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31]. The precursors was solved up to 60°C then Cu-TU (dark green color) [32] and In-OLA (light green color) [33] complex was formed.…”

“…High efficiency thin film solar cells fabricated based on vacuum based techniques, such as molecular beam epitaxy, co-evaporation, sputtering, ion layer gas reaction are costly [11][12][13]. One of trends in this field is reducing the production cost by introducing vacuum free preparation such as electrodeposition, chemical bath deposition, microwave-assisted synthesis, spray pyrolysis [14][15][16][17] and different wet chemical methods [18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25]. The one pot solution synthesis is one of the best wet chemical methods that have non-vacuum, fast, uncomplicated, highly reproducible, inexpensive equipment, low materials waste, proper stoichiometry and stable colloidal solutions.…”

One-pot synthesis of CoNiO2 single-crystalline nanoparticles as high-performance electrode materials of asymmetric supercapacitors

“…Typical CoNiO 2 nanoparticles were synthesized by an improved solvothermal process which is similar to that of ternary chalcogenides in our previous work (Du et al 2007(Du et al , 2014. Detailed experimental parameters are provided as the following: metal source: 0.160 g Co(AC) 2 Á4H 2 O and 0.160 g Ni(AC) 2 Á4H 2 O; solvent: 37 mL anisole; surfactant: 3.0 mL oleylamine; temperature: 200°C; reaction time: 24 h.…”

Facile preparation and visible light photocatalytic activity of CdIn2S4 monodispersed spherical particles

“…Especially, the uniform metal chalcogenide particles with precisely controlled sizes are expected to provide us with excellent functional optoelectronic materials, catalysts and so on [4,5]. Now, a lot of efforts have been made to synthesize monodispersed particles of chalcogenide compounds [6][7][8][9]. However, it is still an interesting topic in the material world to prepare monodispersed spherical particles by a simple process.…”