New Synthetic Methods

Advancements in modern technologies including electronics, batteries, catalysis, and drug delivery depend on superior solid-state materials. While theory and artificial intelligence (AI) accelerate the design of tailored materials, targeted synthesis remains a major challenge. Progress is fundamentally hampered by a critical knowledge gap: lack of a detailed mechanistic understanding of how solid materials form during synthesis. We aim to bridge this synthesis gap by establishing principles analogous to those used in organic chemistry.

We have long suspected that high-temperature solutions (or fluxes) can dissolve precursors into discrete solvated species. These intermediates, analogous to molecular building blocks in coordination chemistry, subsequently dictate the assembly of the final extended solid. In a recent work published in JACS, we demonstrated that the size and coordination of Ag-Se building blocks decrease with increasing temperature or basicity, as illustrated below:

Building on our ability to control the structural motifs and coordination environments within Ag-Se systems, we further demonstrate that this understanding enables the kinetic construction of unique structure types. This was achieved using a kinetically controlled diffusion method, which facilitates the co-precipitation of distinct building blocks to form a new complex silver selenide exhibiting three distinct structural motifs, as depicted below: