A general method for the large-scale synthesis of uniform ultrathin metal sulphide nanocrystals

Date

2012

Authors

Du, Yaping
Yin, Zongyou
Zhu, Jixin
Huang, Xiao
Wu, Xue-Jun
Zeng, Zhiyuan
Yan, Qingyu
Zhang, Hua

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Volume Title

Publisher

Macmillan Publishers Ltd

Abstract

Ultrathin metal sulphide nanomaterials exhibit many unique properties, and are thus attractive materials for numerous applications. However, the high-yield, large-scale synthesis of well-defined ultrathin metal sulphide nanostructures by a general and facile wet-chemical method is yet to be realized. Here we report a universal soft colloidal templating strategy for the synthesis of high-quality ultrathin metal sulphide nanocrystals, that is 3.2 nm-thick hexagonal CuS nanosheets, 1.8 nm-diameter hexagonal ZnS nanowires, 1.2 nm-diameter orthorhombic Bi2S3 nanowires and 1.8 nm-diameter orthorhombic Sb2S3 nanowires. As a proof of concept, the ultrathin CuS nanosheets are used to fabricate an electrode for a lithium-ion battery, which exhibits a large capacity and good cycling stability, even after 360 cycles. Furthermore, high-yield, gram-scale production of these ultrathin metal sulphide nanomaterials has been achieved (∼100%, without size-sorting process). Our method could be broadly applicable for the high-yield production of novel ultrathin nanostructures with great promise for various applications

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Source

Nature Communications

Type

Journal article

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Access Statement

Open Access

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