Cation Exchange in Nanocrystals Towards Novel Ternary Copper Chalcogens

Abstract

With the rapid rise in global consumption of resources, research and development of new technologies has focused on alternative energy production as well as improving their performance to mitigate raw material consumption. In the interest of finding new nanomaterials with high efficiencies, the following thesis concerns the synthesis of copper chalcogen nanocrystals through cation exchange with focus on ternary intermediate and final products. Firstly, synthetic targeting of metastable and thermodynamic CuFeS2 from Cu2S hosts is demonstrated where electron donor strength dictates whether the hexagonal or tetragonal phase forms. Secondly, high surface area Cu1.8S Roxbyite nanocubes are synthesized from a cubic SnS with copper-tin-sulfide intermediate shell structures. Finally, preliminary work on an auric ion exchange with Cu2Se towards an unresolved copper gold selenide product is discussed.