Size-Tunable, Hexagonal Plate-like Cu3P and Janus-like Cu鈥揅u3P Nanocrystals
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- 作者：Luca De Trizio ; Albert Figuerola ; Liberato Manna ; Alessandro Genovese ; Chandramohan George ; Rosaria Brescia ; Zineb Saghi ; Roberto Simonutti ; Marijn Van Huis ; Andrea Falqui
- 刊名：ACS Nano
- 出版年：2012
- 出版时间：January 24, 2012
- 年：2012
- 卷：6
- 期：1
- 页码：32-41
- 全文大小：1124K
- 年卷期：v.6,no.1(January 24, 2012)
- ISSN：1936-086X
文摘
We describe two synthesis approaches to colloidal Cu3P nanocrystals using trioctylphosphine (TOP) as phosphorus precursor. One approach is based on the homogeneous nucleation of small Cu3P nanocrystals with hexagonal plate-like morphology and with sizes that can be tuned from 5 to 50 nm depending on the reaction time. In the other approach, metallic Cu nanocrystals are nucleated first and then they are progressively phosphorized to Cu3P. In this case, intermediate Janus-like dimeric nanoparticles can be isolated, which are made of two domains of different materials, Cu and Cu3P, sharing a flat epitaxial interface. The Janus-like nanoparticles can be transformed back to single-crystalline copper particles if they are annealed at high temperature under high vacuum conditions, which makes them an interesting source of phosphorus. The features of the Cu鈥揅u3P Janus-like nanoparticles are compared with those of the striped microstructure discovered more than two decades ago in the rapidly quenched Cu鈥揅u3P eutectic of the Cu鈥揚 alloy, suggesting that other alloy/eutectic systems that display similar behavior might give origin to nanostructures with flat, epitaxial interface between domains of two diverse materials. Finally, the electrochemical properties of the copper phosphide plates are studied, and they are found to be capable of undergoing lithiation/delithiation through a displacement reaction, while the Janus-like Cu鈥揅u3P particles do not display an electrochemical behavior that would make them suitable for applications in batteries.