Shape controlled synthesis of tadpole-like and heliotrope seed-like AgInS2 nanocrystals

A convenient synthesis strategy was developed to synthesize tadpole-like and heliotrope seed-like AgInS2 nanocrystals by thermolysis of sliver acetylacetonate (Agacac) and indium acetylacetonate [In(acac)(3)] in a high boiling point solvent. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM), high-resolution TEM (HRTEM), two-dimensional fast Fourier transform (2D-FFT), X-ray diffraction (XRD), UV-vis spectroscopy, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) were used to investigate the factors of shape-controlled and the process of the phase transformation. In addition, it was found that the growth process of tadpole-like AgInS2 nanocrystals started with the formation of biphasic Ag-AgInS2 heterostructured nanocrystals and finally transformed into monophasic AgInS2 nanocrystals. These compositional, structural, and mechanistic findings provide valuable insight into the controlled solution growth of ternary chalcogenide nanocrystals and will aid in the development of solar cells using ternary I-III-VI2 semiconductors.