Tuning the Morphology of GeS₂ Hybrid Materials Using Ionic Liquids as Structuring Agents

Abstract

Control of the surface chemistry and morphology of chalcogenide materials, which are highly polarizable, is a very interesting challenge as it might lead to breakthroughs in various fields such as electrochemistry, catalysis, and gas‐phase separation. With this in mind, a new approach to synthesize structured Ge‐based chalcogenide products has been investigated. It involves the use of tetraethoxygermanium (TEOG) and thioacetamide with an ionic liquid (IL) as structuring agent. This innovative synthesis process has two main advantages: it is performed under soft conditions, and it also enables the morphological control of the obtained hybrid organic–GeS2 particles. In the absence of the IL, the synthesis leads to an agglomeration of nanospheres, whereas the introduction of the ionic liquid leads either to microspheres or to gypsum rosette‐like particles. It has been clearly highlighted that the morphology of the hybrid organic–GeS2 particles strongly depended on the nature of the cationic part of the IL.

Structure and Dynamics of Ionic Liquids Confined in Amorphous Porous Chalcogenides

“…While a realistic all-atom strategy was used to produce these models, they are not necessarily representative of experimental samples obtained by synthesizing nanoporous chalcogenides or chalcogenide nanoparticles in ionic liquids. In particular, recent experimental results have shown that some cations remain adsorbed at the surface of the host material . Some differences can therefore be expected when comparing our results with those for these experimental samples but our models still pertain to the confinement and dynamics of ionic liquids in nanoporous chalcogenides as prepared using other synthesis techniques or post synthesis treatments.…”

“…This is supported by the experimental work of Nayeri et al, suggesting that the IL cation is closer to the silica surface than the anion. Of course, departure from such arrangements can be expected for charged surfaces or other surface chemistries …”

“…A large number of experimental and theoretical works on confined IL have considered silica and carbon matrices. − As in the case of molecular liquids, these works have shown that the physics of the confined IL departs from the bulk with drastically modified structural and dynamical properties and shifted phase transitions. Besides silica and carbon materials, very little is known about the physics and chemistry of hybrid materials made up of IL confined in porous chalcogels, and the specific interactions between chalcogenide surfaces and IL remain largely unexplored. − ,, Despite a few experimental papers on the synthesis of nanoporous chalcogenides, there is no theoretical/molecular simulation study on the specific physical interactions between chalcogenide and IL. Consequently, considering the promising properties of chalcogenide systems and IL, it is of considerable interest to identify key variables such as the surface/volume ratio, etc.…”

“…Besides silica and carbon materials, very little is known about the physics and chemistry of hybrid materials made up of IL confined in porous chalcogels, and the specific interactions between chalcogenide surfaces and IL remain largely unexplored. [10][11][12]19,20 Despite a few experimental papers on the synthesis of nanoporous chalcogenides, there is no theoretical/molecular simulation study on the specific physical interactions between chalcogenide and IL. Consequently, considering the promising properties of chalcogenide systems and IL, it is of considerable interest to identify key variables such as the surface/volume ratio, etc.…”

Synthesis of Antimony Trioxide Crystals with Various Morphologies and Their UV‐Vis‐NIR Reflectance Performance

“…The morphologies and microstructures of crystal materials have great influences on their properties in catalysis, magnetic fluids, memory storage, optical properties, and so on. There are more and more publications related to morphology‐controlled synthesis of nanomaterials or micromaterials . And many research works indicate that the morphologies and nanostructures of nanomaterials play an important role in determining their performance .…”