Ligand Lifecycle Throughout Inorganic Nanomaterial Processing: From Synthesis to Sintering

Abstract

Organic ligands serve several critical roles during the solution-processing of nanomaterials (NMs). As a result, much effort has gone into understanding and engineering the ligands’ ability to tailor NM synthesis, and later, the suspension of NMs into solution for deposition and post-processing. While the ligand’s ability to tailor the final NMs properties has been widely studied, observations of ligand side-reactivity during synthesis and post-processing (i.e., sintering) are emerging. Chapter 1 introduces the known processes of nanomaterials and ligands during synthesis and sintering, and the remaining chapters seek to define the internal and external variables which influence structural changes to the ligand during synthesis (Chapters 2 and 3), and how ligand selection can be leveraged to control the morphology of sintered NM thin films (Chapter 4). As a whole, this work aims investigate the lesser-known roles of the ligand during both nanomaterial synthesis and sintering, and in doing so, provide strategies on how to leverage ligand selection.