Unique Cation Exchange in Nanocrystal Matrix via Surface Vacancy Engineering Overcoming Chemical Kinetic Energy Barriers

Surface vacancy engineering has emerged as a useful method for enhancing the performance of semiconductor nanocrystals (SNCs). Moreover, it is always anticipated to explore further synthesis mechanism and functional nanomaterials via overcoming kinetic energy barriers of multi-step reactions. Herein, we developed an effective surface-vacancy-engineering-initialized cation exchange (SVEICE) strategy to overcome the kinetic energy barriers of cation exchange reactions from ternary CuInX2 (X = S, Se) to Cu, In dual-doped binary CdX, or ZnX SNCs by precisely tailoring surface Cu and In vacancy identities. These dual-doped SNCs exhibited dual-doped-dependent optoelectronic properties unprecedentedly. Due to the good versatility, this strategy is expected to drive further progress of doped SNC synthesis, cation exchange, and surface vacancy engineering.