Converting metals into phosphides: A general strategy for the synthesis of metal phosphide nanocrystals

A new strategy is described for synthesizing nanostructures of transition metal phosphides, which has used the conversion of preformed metal nanoparticles into metal phosphides by solution-mediated reaction with trioctyphosphine (TOP). The results have shown that in addition to its utility for accessing transition metal phosphides using a highly robust method, various aspects of nanostructure can be influenced by controlling critical aspects of the metal nanoparticle precursors.