Self-assembly of nanocrystals into strongly electronically coupled all-inorganic supercrystals

Colloidal nanocrystals of metals, semiconductors, and other functional materials can self-assemble into long-range ordered crystalline and quasicrystalline phases, but insulating organic surface ligands prevent the development of collective electronic states in ordered nanocrystal assemblies. We rev...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Science (American Association for the Advancement of Science) 2022-03, Vol.375 (6587), p.1422-1426
Main Authors: Coropceanu, Igor, Janke, Eric M, Portner, Joshua, Haubold, Danny, Nguyen, Trung Dac, Das, Avishek, Tanner, Christian P N, Utterback, James K, Teitelbaum, Samuel W, Hudson, Margaret H, Sarma, Nivedina A, Hinkle, Alex M, Tassone, Christopher J, Eychmüller, Alexander, Limmer, David T, Olvera de la Cruz, Monica, Ginsberg, Naomi S, Talapin, Dmitri V
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Anions
Cadmium
Cadmium selenide
Cadmium selenides
Conduction
Crystals
Gels
Heavy metals
INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY
Lead sulfides
Ligands
Nanocrystals
Nickel
Selenide
Self-assembly
Semiconductors
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Summary:Colloidal nanocrystals of metals, semiconductors, and other functional materials can self-assemble into long-range ordered crystalline and quasicrystalline phases, but insulating organic surface ligands prevent the development of collective electronic states in ordered nanocrystal assemblies. We reversibly self-assembled colloidal nanocrystals of gold, platinum, nickel, lead sulfide, and lead selenide with conductive inorganic ligands into supercrystals exhibiting optical and electronic properties consistent with strong electronic coupling between the constituent nanocrystals. The phase behavior of charge-stabilized nanocrystals can be rationalized and navigated with phase diagrams computed for particles interacting through short-range attractive potentials. By finely tuning interparticle interactions, the assembly was directed either through one-step nucleation or nonclassical two-step nucleation pathways. In the latter case, the nucleation was preceded by the formation of two metastable colloidal fluids.
ISSN:0036-8075
1095-9203
DOI:10.1126/science.abm6753