Evolving trends in the solvent strategies for preparing semiconducting nanomaterials for multifarious applications

Semiconducting nanomaterials have been widely explored for various applications due to their remarkable coordination between electronic and morphological attributes. The extent of their potential applications transcends from various environmental remediation applications like sensing and photocatalysis to several complex applications like energy storage/production and drug delivery processes. The properties of semiconducting nanomaterials can be effectively tuned by changing the solvent strategies. A solvent can effectively interfere in the nucleation process and hence can significantly influence the shape and size of nanomaterials, which is directly related to other important properties. In this review article, we have holistically discussed and categorized different solvents and encompassed their role in the preparation strategies of different semiconducting nanomaterials. We have tried to explain the evolution of solvent strategies based on the reported literature, that is the evolution from conventional solvents to more advanced and nascent solvent strategies like ionic liquids and deep eutectic solvents. After adequate comparison, we have concluded that the change or rather advancements in the solvent strategies have dramatically enhanced and transformed the properties and potential of several semiconducting nanomaterials in the domains such as photocatalysis, sensing, biomedical and electrochemical applications. We anticipate that this review article will encourage researchers across the globe to explore and develop novel solvent strategies and assess their effect on the properties of different classes of materials.