Flash-within-flash synthesis of gram-scale solid-state materials

Sustainable manufacturing that prioritizes energy efficiency, minimal water use, scalability, and the ability to generate diverse materials is essential to advance inorganic materials production while maintaining environmental consciousness. However, current manufacturing practices are unable to meet these requirements. Here, we describe a new flash-within-flash Joule heating (FWF)—a non-equilibrium, ultrafast heat conduction method—to prepare 13 transition metal dichalcogenides (TMD) and 9 non-TMD materials, each in under 5 seconds while in ambient conditions. FWF achieves enormous advantages in facile gram scalability and in sustainable manufacturing criteria when compared to other synthesis methods. Also, FWF allows the production of phase-selective and single-crystalline bulk powders, a phenomenon rarely observed by any other synthesis method. Furthermore, FWF-made MoSe2 outperformed commercially available MoSe2 in tribology, showcasing the quality of FWF-made materials. The capability for atom substitution and doping further highlights the versatility of FWF as a general bulk inorganic materials synthesis protocol.