Chapter 3: Metal–Chalcogenolates: Synthesis and Applications in Material Chemistry

Metal chalcogenolate complexes have been known for a long time. These complexes exhibit rich and diverse structural chemistry and find numerous applications in widely different areas. Their utility as a single source molecular precursor for the design and synthesis of metal chalcogenides was quickly realized with the emergence of nano-science and nanotechnology in the 1990s. This chapter intends to cover synthetic approaches for the preparation of metal chalcogenolates and their applications in materials chemistry. Metal chalcogenolate precursor chemistry for both binary and ternary metal chalcogenides is discussed.