Isolation of cubic Si3P4 in the form of nanocrystals

Polina K Nikiforova; Sergei S Bubenov; Vadim B Platonov; Andrey S Kumskov; Nikolay N Kononov; Tatyana A Kuznetsova; Sergey G Dorofeev

doi:10.3762/bjnano.14.80

Isolation of cubic Si₃P₄ in the form of nanocrystals

Beilstein J Nanotechnol. 2023 Sep 26:14:971-979. doi: 10.3762/bjnano.14.80. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Polina K Nikiforova¹, Sergei S Bubenov¹, Vadim B Platonov¹, Andrey S Kumskov², Nikolay N Kononov³, Tatyana A Kuznetsova¹, Sergey G Dorofeev¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Chemistry, Lomonosov Moscow State University, 1-3 Leninskie Gory, Moscow, Russia.
² Shubnikov Institute of Crystallography, Federal Scientific Research Centre «Crystallography and Photonics», Russian Academy of Sciences, 59 Leninskiy prospekt, Moscow, Russia.
³ Prokhorov General Physics Institute, Russian Academy of Sciences, 38 Vavilov Str., Moscow, Russia.

Abstract

This article describes an approach for synthesizing silicon phosphide nanoparticles with a defective zinc blende structure under mild conditions through thermal annealing of hydrogenated silicon nanoparticles with red phosphorus. The synthesized Si₃P₄ nanoparticles were analyzed using FTIR, XRD, electron diffraction, EDX, TEM, Raman spectroscopy, X-ray fluorescence spectrometry, and UV-vis spectrophotometry. For the isolated cubic Si₃P₄ phase, a cell parameter of a = 5.04 Å was determined, and the bandgap was estimated to be equal to 1.25 eV. Because of the nanoscale dimensions of the obtained Si₃P₄ nanoparticles, the product may exhibit several exceptional properties as a precursor for diffusion doping of wafers and as anode material for Li-ion batteries. A similar method with a hydrogenation step offers the possibility to obtain other compounds, such as silicon selenides, arsenides, and sulfides.

Keywords: DFT calculations; ampoule annealing; defective zinc blende structure; semiconductor nanocrystals; silicon phosphide.

Grants and funding

This work was performed within the State assignment of Federal Scientific Research Center «Crystallography and Photonics» of the Russian Academy of Sciences in part of electron microscopy researches and supported by the Russian Science Foundation (project no. 22-23-00540; https://rscf.ru/en/project/22-23-00540/).