A General One-Pot Approach to Synthesize Binary and Ternary Metal Sulfide Nanocrystals

A general one-pot approach is developed to synthesize a series of binary metal sulfide nanocrystals (NCs) including PbS, Cu₂S, ZnS, CdS, Ag₂S, and ternary CuInS₂ and CdS:Cu(I) NCs. This synthetic approach involves thermal decomposition of the mixture of inorganic metal salts and n-dodecanethiol (DDT) without pre-synthesis of any organometallic precursors. In this method, layered metal-thiolate compound is formed at the beginning of the reaction and then this intermediate compound is decomposed into small particles, leading to further growth as the reaction time increases. The as-obtained CdS NCs exhibits a broad but weak surface-state emission, and the Cu(I) doping leads to a red-shift of the emission band due to the Cu(I)-related emission. It is expected that this one-pot approach can be extended to prepare multinary metal sulfide NCs.