Synthesis of copper sulphide-based hybrid nanostructures and their application in shape control of colloidal semiconductor nanocrystals

Copper sulphide is a material with low toxicity and high application potential. Colloidal synthesis allows its incorporation into hybrid nanostructures, which not only combine the properties of different materials within one nanocrystal, but also exhibit new features due to the interaction of the building blocks connected on the nanometer scale. Starting with copper sulphide seeds, such hybrid nanocrystals composed of copper sulphide and semiconductors like CuInS2, CuInxGa1−xS2, Cu2ZnSnS4, ZnS, CdS, and PbS have been synthesized. In some of these reactions the main focus lies on the formation of new hybrid nanocrystals; in others copper sulphide plays the role of a catalyst, and copper sulphide containing hybrid nanoparticles are only intermediates in the synthesis and shape control of other semiconductor materials. Both possibilities and the underlying growth mechanisms are discussed in this article.