DBU-Catalyzed One-Pot Synthesis of Nearly Any Metal Salt of Fatty Acid (M-FA): A Library of Metal Precursors to Semiconductor Nanocrystal Synthesis

Siddhant Basel; Karishma Bhardwaj; Sajan Pradhan; Anand Pariyar; Sudarsan Tamang

doi:10.1021/acsomega.9b04448

DBU-Catalyzed One-Pot Synthesis of Nearly Any Metal Salt of Fatty Acid (M-FA): A Library of Metal Precursors to Semiconductor Nanocrystal Synthesis

ACS Omega. 2020 Mar 18;5(12):6666-6675. doi: 10.1021/acsomega.9b04448. eCollection 2020 Mar 31.

Authors

Siddhant Basel¹, Karishma Bhardwaj¹, Sajan Pradhan¹, Anand Pariyar¹, Sudarsan Tamang¹

Affiliation

¹ Department of Chemistry, School of Physical Sciences, Sikkim University, Tadong, Gangtok 737102, Sikkim, India.

Abstract

The metal salts of fatty acid (M-FA) are the most widely used metal precursors to colloidal semiconductor nanocrystals (NCs). They play a key role in controlling the composition, shape, and size of semiconductor NCs, and their purity is essential for attaining impeccable batch-to-batch reproducibility in the optical and electrical properties of the NCs. Herein, we report a novel, one-pot synthesis of a library of highly pure M-FAs at near-quantitative yields (up to 91%) using 1,8-diazabicyclo[5.4.0]undec-7-ene or the related nonionic/noncoordinating base as an inexpensive and ecofriendly catalyst in a green solvent medium. The method is highly general and scalable with vast academic and industrial potential. As a practical application, we also demonstrate the use of these high-quality M-FAs in the synthesis of the spectrum of colloidal semiconductor NCs (III-V, II-VI, IV-VI, I-VI, I-III-VI, and perovskite) having absorption/emission in visible to the near-infrared region.