Proceedings of MATSUS Fall 2024 Conference (MATSUSFall24)
Publication date: 28th August 2024
The physical properties of nanomaterials are often influenced by their composition, especially when they form a solid solution between two distinct nanocrystals. Creating heterostructured nanoparticles with precise configurations incorporating various materials necessitates using appropriate design principles and synthetic methodologies. Although heterostructures composed of metal-sulfide or metal-selenide nanocrystals have been extensively investigated, exploration of those consisting of metal-telluride nanocrystals is relatively limited due to the lower abundance of tellurium. The unique characteristics of these materials make them exceptionally attractive for a wide range of functional applications. The distinctive arrangement and remarkable characteristics pertaining to their electronic and optical attributes have engendered diverse utilization across the domains of catalysis, plasmonics, and energy. This study established a hot injection chemistry platform to accelerate the discovery and rational synthesis of heterostructured metal telluride nanocrystals from bimetallic alloys. The capacity to judiciously modulate the reactivity of tellurium and PdCu alloy systems conferred the ability to govern the shape and surface properties of specific phases within the fabricated core@shell heterostructures. The plasmonic and photoelectrocatalytic characteristics of the synthesized heterostructures were comprehensively investigated for the hydrogen evolution reaction. This work's profound insights will prove indispensable in formulating scalable solution-oriented strategies for regulating hybrid structures of transition metal nanocrystals. Moreover, this synthesis methodology possesses its own potential for expansion towards various complex heterostructures with improved surface functionalities.