A Photochemical Route towards Metal Sulfide Nanosheets from Layered Metal Thiolate Complexes

Synthesizing nanomaterials with anisotropic architectures, especially two-dimensional (2D) nanosheets (NSs), is a key focus of materials science research. Metal sulfide nanosheets (MSNSs) are typically obtained involving exfoliation of bulk metal sulfides with layered structures. The synthesis of NSs of intrinsically non-layered metal sulfides has received relatively less attention. Metal alkanethiolates with lamellar structures are now shown to serve as effective scaffolds for constructing NSs. A novel photochemical step was employed to transform 2D metal thiolates into MSNSs. By this strategy the 2D nature of metal thiolate precursors was preserved in the final products, resulting in the successful synthesis of NSs of binary PbS, CdS, and Cu9S5, as well as ternary wurtzite CuInS2, Cu2SnS3. Results encourage the wider utilization of photochemical strategies in the synthesis of anisotropic MSNSs.