Anion-driven enabled functional nanomaterials from metal and metal oxide nanoparticles

Despite significant progress in the synthesis of nanocrystals (NCs) by conventional wet-chemical synthetic approaches, producing nanostructures with complex architectures tailored to specific applications remains a formidable challenge. Recently, anion-driven synthesis, including oxidation, sulfidation, phosphorization, nitridation, selenization, telluridation, and chlorination have emerged as a versatile approach to produce novel nanostructured materials with tuned size, morphology, crystal structure, and composition from the chemical transformation of template NCs. This chemical conversion can be accompanied by the formation of new NCs architectures, overall modifying the surface chemistry and the mechanical, electronic, optical, and magnetic properties of the material. This strategy can be used to optimize the performance of the material in a range of applications, including energy conversion and storage, catalysis, bioimaging, drug delivery, and sensing. In this review, we first detail the possible anion-driven synthesis and discuss the related underlying mechanisms. Subsequently, we overview the unique nanostructure obtained by this strategy and summarize their functional properties and potential applications. Finally, we provide perspectives and discuss the remaining challenges and the new opportunities in this field. © 2024 The Author(s).