Tailored growth of single-crystalline InP tetrapods
Youngsik Kim, Hyekyoung Choi, Yeunhee Lee, Weon‐kyu Koh, Eunhye Cho, Tae‐Wan Kim, Hamin Kim, Yong‐Hyun Kim, Hu Young Jeong, Sohee Jeong
Abstract
Despite the technological importance of colloidal covalent III-V nanocrystals with unique optoelectronic properties, their synthetic process still has challenges originating from the complex energy landscape of the reaction. Here, we present InP tetrapod nanocrystals as a crystalline late intermediate in the synthetic pathway that warrants controlled growth. We isolate tetrapod intermediate species with well-defined surfaces of (110) and ([Formula: see text]) via the suppression of further growth. An additional precursor supply at low temperature induces [Formula: see text]-specific growth, whereas the [110]-directional growth occurs over the activation barrier of 65.7 kJ/mol at a higher temperature, thus finalizes into the (111)-faceted tetrahedron nanocrystals. We address the use of late intermediates with well-defined facets at the sub-10 nm scale for the tailored growth of covalent III-V nanocrystals and highlight the potential for the directed approach of nanocrystal synthesis.