Facile Preparation of Wurtzite CuInE2 (E = S, Se) Nanoparticles Under Solvothermal Conditions

Xuzhao Zhao; Yining Huang; John F Corrigan

doi:10.1021/acs.inorgchem.6b02177

Facile Preparation of Wurtzite CuInE₂ (E = S, Se) Nanoparticles Under Solvothermal Conditions

Inorg Chem. 2016 Oct 17;55(20):10810-10817. doi: 10.1021/acs.inorgchem.6b02177. Epub 2016 Sep 28.

Authors

Xuzhao Zhao¹, Yining Huang^{1

2}, John F Corrigan^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Chemistry, The University of Western Ontario , London, Ontario, N6A 5B7 Canada.
² Centre for Advanced Materials and Biomaterials Research, The University of Western Ontario , London, Ontario, N6A 3K7 Canada.

PMID: 27682624
DOI: 10.1021/acs.inorgchem.6b02177

Abstract

In this work, the synthesis of nanoscale CuInS₂ and CuInSe₂ was developed using molecular precursors of the type [(Ph₃P)₂CuIn(ER)₄] (E = S, Se) and solvothermal reactions. Various conditions were investigated including the use of different precursors, reaction temperatures, reaction times and the addition of a secondary chalcogen source to mixtures. After optimizing conditions, nanoparticles of CuInS₂ and CuInSe₂ were isolated with controlled sizes in the range of 2-5 nm (wurtzite structure), which ultimately tuned the band gap energies of the materials. Characterization methods including powder X-ray diffraction, electron microscopy, and optical spectroscopy were used to investigate their structures and photophysical properties.