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  • Perspective
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Reaction intermediates in the synthesis of colloidal nanocrystals

Nature Synthesis volume 1, pages 344–351 (2022)Cite this article

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Abstract

Over the past 40 years, scientists have developed routes to synthesize colloidal nanocrystals of different compositions and with tunable size and shape. These features dictate the properties of these nanomaterials and, thus, their control aids the discovery of different physical chemical phenomena, many of which have contributed to technological advances; for example, the use of semiconductor nanocrystals as active components in displays with excellent colour purity. Yet, the synthesis of colloidal nanocrystals still proceeds by trial and error. The search for the reaction conditions to obtain nanocrystals with the desired compositions, sizes and shapes is time consuming and can fail to deliver the target product. In this Perspective, we discuss the importance of identifying reaction intermediates during the formation of colloidal nanocrystals for the development of a retrosynthetic approach to these nanomaterials. We select molecular complexes and clusters, coordination polymers and mesophases, and inorganic nanoparticles as some of the most common intermediates. The discovered pathways pinpoint the steps that enable a more predictive synthesis of colloidal nanocrystals. This Perspective encourages more mechanistic studies to eventually implement the concept of retrosynthesis for these nanomaterials.

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Fig. 1: Classical nucleation theory.
Fig. 2: Molecular complexes and clusters as reaction intermediates.
Fig. 3: Coordination polymers and mesophases as reaction intermediates.
Fig. 4: Inorganic nanoparticles as reaction intermediates.

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Acknowledgements

The authors acknowledge the great support of the École Politechnique Fédérale de Lausanne over the past six years.

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  1. Laboratory of Nanochemistry for Energy, Institute of Chemical Sciences and Engineering, Ecole Politechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Sion, Switzerland

    Anna Loiudice & Raffaella Buonsanti

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A.L. and R.B. discussed the content and wrote the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Raffaella Buonsanti.

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Nature Synthesis thanks Brian Korgel and the other, anonymous, reviewer(s) for their contribution to the peer review of this work. Primary Handling Editor: Alison Stoddart, in collaboration with the Nature Synthesis team.

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Loiudice, A., Buonsanti, R. Reaction intermediates in the synthesis of colloidal nanocrystals. Nat. Synth 1, 344–351 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s44160-022-00056-x

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