Diverse-shaped iron sulfide nanostructures synthesized from a single source precursor approach

Iron sulfide nanostructures with diverse shapes (nanoparticles, nanoribbons and nanoplates) have been synthesized via a single-source precursor of Fe(Ddtc)(3) or Fe(Ddtc)(2)(Phen) (Phen = 1,10-phenanthroline; Ddtc diethyldithiocarbamate) in the mixture solvents of oleic acid (OA)/oleylamine (OM)/1-octadecene (ODE). The chemical compositions of the as-formed iron sulfide nanostructures are found to be determined by the valencies of iron in the precursors. For phase-pure Fe3S4 and Fe7S8 nanostructures, their shape-selective syntheses could be realized mainly by modifying the ratio of reaction solvent compositions and the chemical composition of precursors. The growth of nanoparticles and nanoplates of iron sulfide is likely due to the selective adsorption of the capping ligands on specific crystal planes of the nanocrystals. Meanwhile, for FeSx nanoribbons, the growth of nanoribbons may come from the template-direction of micellar structures formed by self-assembly of capping ligands. Furthermore, the Fe3S4 and Fe7S8 nanostructures display strong ferromagnetic properties at room temperature.