Solid-State C–S Coupling in Nickel Organochalcogenide Frameworks as a Route to Hierarchical Structure Transfer to Binary Nanomaterials

In this work, the transfer of the flexible and easily tunable hierarchical structure of nickel organochalcogenides to different binary Ni-based nanomaterials via selective coupling of organic units was developed. We suggested the use of substituted aryl groups in organosulfur ligands (SAr) as traceless structure-inducing units to prepare nanostructured materials. At the first step, it was shown that the slight variation of the type of SAr units and synthetic procedures allowed us to obtain nickel thiolates [Ni(SAr)2]n with diverse morphologies after a self-assembly process in solution. This feature opened the way for the synthesis of different nanomaterials from a single type of precursor using the phenomenon of direct transfer of morphology. This study revealed that various nickel thiolates undergo selective C-S coupling under high-temperature conditions with the formation of highly demanding nanostructured NiS particles and corresponding diaryl sulfides. The in situ oxidation of the formed nickel sulfide in the case of reaction in an air atmosphere provided another type of valuable nanomaterial, nickel oxide. The high selectivity of the transformation allowed the preservation of the initial organochalcogenide morphologies in the resulting products.