Sculpting of lead sulfide nanoparticles by means of acetic acid and dichloroethane

TL;DR

This paper introduces a straightforward synthesis method for lead sulfide nanoparticles, using acetic acid and dichloroethane to precisely control their size and shape for tailored optical and electrical properties.

Contribution

A new synthetic route utilizing acetic acid and dichloroethane to tune the size and shape of PbS nanoparticles, enhancing their application potential.

Findings

Shape can be controlled from quasi-spherical to star-like forms.

Acetic acid influences crystal facet growth and surface energies.

Dichloroethane reduces particle size and narrows size distribution.

Abstract

Colloidal lead sulfide is a versatile material with great opportunities to tune the bandgap by electronic confinement and to adapt the optical and electrical properties to the target application. We present a new and simple synthetic route to control size and shape of PbS nanoparticles. Increasing concentrations of explicitly added acetic acid are used to tune the shape of PbS nanoparticles from quasi-spherical particles via octahedrons to six-armed stars. The presence of acetate changes the intrinsic surface energies of the different crystal facets and enables the growth along the <100> direction. Furthermore, the presence of 1,2-dichloroethane alters the reaction kinetics, which results in smaller nanoparticles with a narrower size distribution.