Dimensionality Control in Superlattices from Copper Sulfide Nanocrystals

Three-dimensional nanocrystal superlattices have garnered considerable research interest due to their remarkable collective properties and promising applications. The control of the dimensionality of superlattices remains a significant challenge, with no established synthetic protocol to tune the shape of superlattices. The present article manifests a straightforward and efficient single-step chemical synthesis route for modulating the dimensionality of Cu1.8S nanocrystals superlattices. The resulting superlattices exhibit distinct stability within several solvents (hexane, toluene and benzene) over an extended period of several months. Furthermore, we unveil the growth mechanism of these superlattices through comprehensive small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) experiments. This method addresses several drawbacks (multi step synthesis, structural fragility, reproducibility, long-range order instability, etc) associated with previously reported self-assembly methods, the superlattices generated by this technique are efficient to fabricate devices in the future.