Publications Details

Cubic SnGe nanoalloys: Beyond thermodynamic composition limit

Ramasamy, Karthik; Kotula, Paul G.; Modine, N.A.; Brumbach, Michael T.; Pietryga, Jeffrey M.; Ivanov, Sergei A.

Tin-germanium alloys are increasingly of interest as optoelectronic and thermoelectric materials as well as materials for Li/Na ion battery electrodes. However, the lattice incompatibility of bulk Sn and Ge makes creating such alloys challenging. By exploiting the unique strain tolerance of nanosized crystals, we have developed a facile synthetic method for homogeneous SnxGe1-x alloy nanocrystals with composition varying from essentially pure Ge to 95% Sn while still maintaining the cubic structure.