Recent Advances in the Colloidal Synthesis of Ternary Transition Metal Phosphides

Abstract

Transition metal phosphides are interesting candidates for application as catalysts in electrochemical water splitting or heteroatom removal reactions, energy storage, and magnetic refrigeration. Metal phosphides can adopt a wide range of stoichiometries, and have metallic or semiconducting properties. The electronic and magnetic characteristics of metal phosphides can be further controlled by changing the size and the shape of the crystallites and by combining two different metals. In this review, the wet-chemical methods to synthesize such ternary Fe, Co, and Ni phosphides are summarised. First, an overview of the general synthetic strategies and the crystallographic structure of the related materials is given. Then, examples of the synthesis of several ternary phosphides are described, and the motivation for synthesising the specific materials is discussed.