Flexible single-source precursors for solar light-harvesting applications

Abstract Considerable work has been done in the last three decades using single molecular precursors (SMPs) to prepare size- and shape-controlled inorganic materials on a nanoscale (1–100 nm). The flexibility and availability of a large number of starting materials have made it possible to design thermally and photochemically stable single-source molecular precursors for almost all technologically important inorganic materials. The single-source precursor route offers exceptional freedom to prepare high-efficiency all-inorganic nanostructured materials (0-, 1-, 2-, and 3-dimensional) for a large number of applications. A large number of binary-, ternary-, and quaternary-phased metal chalcogenide/oxide materials have been prepared successfully and have demonstrated the excellence of this method. The presence of all of the required elements in a single molecule provides an intrinsic means to control stoichiometric ratio in the as-deposited material. In this chapter, we present the use of different classes of potentially important SMPs, including, chalcogenolates, xanthates, thiophosphinates, thio-selenophoshinates, dichalcogenoimidodiphosphinates, bis(dialkydithio/selenocarbamato) compounds species, N-alkyldithiocarbamates, mixed alkyl/dithio or diselenocarbamato complexes, dimorpholinodithioacetylacetonates, thiobiurets, and dithiobiurets, thiosemicarbazide complexes, and alkoxides. This information will be specific and focused on metal sulfide/selenide/telluride/oxide materials that have been investigated as semiconductors in a number of opto-electronic functional devices.