Ternary Nitride Materials: Fundamentals and Emerging Device Applications

TL;DR

This review explores the fundamental properties, synthesis challenges, and emerging applications of inorganic ternary nitride materials, emphasizing their potential in electronics, lighting, and energy storage.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive overview of the structural chemistry, defect chemistry, and synthesis techniques of ternary nitrides, highlighting their promising applications.

Findings

Ternary nitrides exhibit diverse chemistries and structures.

Metastability plays a key role in their synthesis and properties.

Applications include solid-state lighting, energy storage, and electronic devices.

Abstract

Interest in inorganic ternary nitride materials has grown rapidly over the past few decades, as their diversity of chemistries and structures make them appealing for a variety of applications. Due to synthetic challenges posed by the stability of N2, the number of predicted nitride compounds dwarfs those that have been synthesized, offering a breadth of opportunity for exploration. This review summarizes the fundamental properties and structural chemistry of ternary nitrides, leveraging metastability and the impact of nitrogen chemical potential. A discussion of prevalent defects, both detrimental and beneficial, is followed by a survey of synthesis techniques and their interplay with metastability. Throughout the review, we highlight applications (such as solid-state lighting, electrochemical energy storage, and electronic devices) in which ternary nitrides show particular promise.