Diverse-shaped iron sulfidenanostructures synthesized from a single source precursor approach

Abstract

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 FeS_x 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.