Seeded Growth Combined with Cation Exchange for the Synthesis of Anisotropic Cu2–xS/ZnS, Cu2–xS, and CuInS2 Nanorods

Colloidal copper(I) sulfide (Cu2–xS) nanocrystals (NCs) have attracted much attention for a wide range of applications because of their unique optoelectronic properties, driving scientists to explore the potential of using Cu2–xS NCs as seeds in the synthesis of heteronanocrystals to achieve new multifunctional materials. Herein, we developed a multistep synthesis strategy toward Cu2–xS/ZnS heteronanorods. The Janus-type Cu2–xS/ZnS heteronanorods are obtained by the injection of hexagonal high-chalcocite Cu2–xS seed NCs in a hot zinc oleate solution in the presence of suitable surfactants, 20 s after the injection of sulfur precursors. The Cu2–xS seed NCs undergo rapid aggregation and coalescence in the first few seconds after the injection, forming larger NCs that act as the effective seeds for heteronucleation and growth of ZnS. The ZnS heteronucleation occurs on a single (100) facet of the Cu2–xS seed NCs and is followed by fast anisotropic growth along a direction that is perpendicular to the c-axis, thus leading to Cu2–xS/ZnS Janus-type heteronanorods with a sharp heterointerface. Interestingly, the high-chalcocite crystal structure of the injected Cu2–xS seed NCs is preserved in the Cu2–xS segments of the heteronanorods because of the high-thermodynamic stability of this Cu2–xS phase. The Cu2–xS/ZnS heteronanorods are subsequently converted into single-component Cu2–xS and CuInS2 nanorods by postsynthetic topotactic cation exchange. This work expands the possibilities for the rational synthesis of colloidal multicomponent heteronanorods by allowing the design principles of postsynthetic heteroepitaxial seeded growth and nanoscale cation exchange to be combined, yielding access to a plethora of multicomponent heteronanorods with diameters in the quantum confinement regime.