Colloidal synthesis of metal arsenides nanocrystals and their potential applications as versatile and innovative materials

Metal arsenide nanocrystals are an interesting class of material due to their versatile physical and chemical properties. Traditionally, the metal arsenide compounds are obtained through thermal degradation or via epitaxial growth. However, the thermal degradation method does not allow good control of the size and shape of the material synthesized. On the other hand, the epitaxial growth permits a high control of the quality of the material, but this technique is very complex and expensive. Colloidal synthesis might be the ideal technique to realize high-quality material reducing costs. Initially, the metal arsenide colloidal nanocrystal synthesis provides the use of arsenic precursors that are very hazardous and not commercially available (i.e. tris(trimethylsilyl)arsine). Today, arsenide colloidal synthesis is carried out using tris(dimethylamino)arsine, which is safer and easier to purchase. Knowing these pieces of information, our research efforts are focused on the realization, through colloidal synthesis, and the study of metal arsenide NCs, including Nickel Arsenide (NiAs), Copper Arsenide (Cu3As), and Indium Arsenide (InAs). We have successfully synthetized NiAs nanocrystals, which are employed in electrocatalysis for water-splitting reaction. Cu3As nanocrystals have been obtained with the aim to use them in the CO2 reduction reaction. Finally, we investigate the electrocatalytic properties of indium arsenide nanocrystals in CO2- reducing reaction. Moreover, since InAs have also optical activity in the infrared region of the electromagnetic spectrum, we have systematically optimized the synthesis protocol in order to improve the optical performance of this material.