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Abstract
Metal chalcogenide gels represent an intriguing class of nanostructured solids that are largely unexplored, in contrast to oxides. This Comment reviews the two synthetic approaches applied for gelation of metal chalcogenides—thiolysis and nanoparticle condensation—and presents a survey of the materials prepared by these strategies. Drying strategies to produce dense xerogels (ambient pressure) and highly porous aerogels (supercritical fluid extraction) are described and the effect of density on the extent of quantum confinement in semiconducting metal chalcogenide gel structures is discussed.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Funding for this work was provided by the National Science Foundation (CAREER: DMR-0094273), Research Corporation (Research Innovation Award R10617) and the Donors of the Petroleum Research Fund administered by the American Chemical Society (PRF-AC 43550).
Notes
EHO = 2-ethylhexoxide, tms = trimethylsilane, EDS = energy dispersive spectroscopy.