[{"supplementarymaterial":"yes","type":"journal_article","PlanS_conform":"1","publisher":"American Chemical Society","language":[{"iso":"eng"}],"year":"2026","project":[{"_id":"9B8F7476-BA93-11EA-9121-9846C619BF3A","name":"HighTE: The Werner Siemens Laboratory for the High Throughput Discovery of Semiconductors for Waste Heat Recovery"},{"grant_number":"101034413","_id":"fc2ed2f7-9c52-11eb-aca3-c01059dda49c","name":"IST-BRIDGE: International postdoctoral program","call_identifier":"H2020"},{"grant_number":"754411","name":"ISTplus - Postdoctoral Fellowships","_id":"260C2330-B435-11E9-9278-68D0E5697425","call_identifier":"H2020"}],"abstract":[{"text":"Alkali salts are widely used in solution processing, yet the corresponding cations are often assumed to remain in the liquid phase. Here, we show that alkali ions introduced during the solution synthesis of SnSe are retained through particle isolation and continue to influence the material during subsequent thermal processing, where they shape the evolution of the final polycrystalline material. Different SnSe powders were prepared using Li+, Na+, and K+ precursors, as well as tetramethylammonium (TMA+) precursors as a nonalkali reference for comparison, and all samples were consolidated under identical conditions. Although all three alkali ions were found in the matrix, at grain boundaries, and in segregated nanoscale regions, they partitioned differently and resulted in distinct grain sizes, defect distributions, and therefore transport properties. Li induced the strongest grain size heterogeneity and the lowest energy barriers, Na the best overall balance between carrier concentration and mobility, and K the broadest alkali-rich grain boundary regions along with the strongest interfacial penalty to charge carrier transport. These results show that residual alkali ions are not just remnants of solution synthesis but active determinants of microstructure and thermoelectric performance in SnSe.","lang":"eng"}],"page":"9323–9332","volume":38,"OA_type":"hybrid","date_updated":"2026-10-06T12:16:03Z","intvolume":"        38","acknowledged_ssus":[{"_id":"EM-Fac"},{"_id":"NanoFab"}],"file":[{"date_created":"2026-10-06T12:11:04Z","file_size":7461570,"success":1,"access_level":"open_access","file_name":"2026_ChemistryMaterials_Fiedler.pdf","relation":"main_file","date_updated":"2026-10-06T12:11:04Z","content_type":"application/pdf","checksum":"15e7866ca4fd57f5526737945651a6f2","file_id":"23063","creator":"dernst"}],"department":[{"_id":"MaIb"},{"_id":"GradSch"},{"_id":"NanoFab"}],"_id":"22967","title":"Alkali ions retained from synthesis govern microstructure and transport in solution-processed SnSe","publication_identifier":{"issn":["0897-4756"],"eissn":["1520-5002"]},"date_created":"2026-09-21T10:33:48Z","pmid":1,"fulldoi":"https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.chemmater.6c01284","oa_version":"Published Version","OA_place":"publisher","publication_status":"published","article_processing_charge":"Yes (via OA deal)","oa":1,"corr_author":"1","external_id":{"pmid":["42787739"]},"date_published":"2026-09-22T00:00:00Z","tmp":{"image":"/images/cc_by.png","short":"CC BY (4.0)","legal_code_url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode","name":"Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License (CC-BY 4.0)"},"researchdata_availability":"no","file_date_updated":"2026-10-06T12:11:04Z","has_accepted_license":"1","acknowledgement":"ISTA and the Werner Siemens Foundation financially supported this work. The Scientific Service Units (SSU) of ISTA supported this research through resources provided by the Electron Microscopy Facility (EMF), Juan Aguilera Servin from the Nanofabrication facility (NNF). Special acknowledgments to the Ibá\r\nez group for their fruitful discussions and insights. K.M. acknowledges the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No. 101034413 and PETRAIII at DESY for the synchrotron X-ray measurements under proposal No. I-20241048 EC. JL is a Serra Húnter Fellow and is grateful to the Academia Excellence program (Generalitat de Catalunya), project PID2024-156765OB-C21 funded by MICIU/AEI/10.13039/501100011033 and the European Regional Development Fund (FEDER), and María de Maeztu Units of Excellence Programme CEX2023-001300 M, funded by MCIN/AEI 10.13039/501100011033. VG and SD acknowledge the use of resources of the National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center, a DOE Office of Science User Facility supported by the Office of Science of the U.S. Department of Energy under Contract No. DE-AC02-05CH11231. Y.L. acknowledges funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under the Marie Sklodowska-Curie grant agreement No. 754411, the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) (Grants No. 22209034).","citation":{"ama":"Fiedler C, Horta S, Jakhar N, et al. Alkali ions retained from synthesis govern microstructure and transport in solution-processed SnSe. <i>Chemistry of Materials</i>. 2026;38(18):9323–9332. doi:<a href=\"https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.chemmater.6c01284\">10.1021/acs.chemmater.6c01284</a>","ieee":"C. Fiedler <i>et al.</i>, “Alkali ions retained from synthesis govern microstructure and transport in solution-processed SnSe,” <i>Chemistry of Materials</i>, vol. 38, no. 18. American Chemical Society, pp. 9323–9332, 2026.","chicago":"Fiedler, Christine, Sharona Horta, Navita Jakhar, Krishnendu Maji, Tobias Kleinhanns, Jordi Llorca, Qi Wang, et al. “Alkali Ions Retained from Synthesis Govern Microstructure and Transport in Solution-Processed SnSe.” <i>Chemistry of Materials</i>. American Chemical Society, 2026. <a href=\"https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.chemmater.6c01284\">https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.chemmater.6c01284</a>.","ista":"Fiedler C, Horta S, Jakhar N, Maji K, Kleinhanns T, Llorca J, Wang Q, Ramon MG, Das S, Gavini V, Liu Y, Ibáñez M. 2026. Alkali ions retained from synthesis govern microstructure and transport in solution-processed SnSe. Chemistry of Materials. 38(18), 9323–9332.","apa":"Fiedler, C., Horta, S., Jakhar, N., Maji, K., Kleinhanns, T., Llorca, J., … Ibáñez, M. (2026). Alkali ions retained from synthesis govern microstructure and transport in solution-processed SnSe. <i>Chemistry of Materials</i>. American Chemical Society. <a href=\"https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.chemmater.6c01284\">https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.chemmater.6c01284</a>","short":"C. Fiedler, S. Horta, N. Jakhar, K. Maji, T. Kleinhanns, J. Llorca, Q. Wang, M.G. Ramon, S. Das, V. Gavini, Y. Liu, M. Ibáñez, Chemistry of Materials 38 (2026) 9323–9332.","mla":"Fiedler, Christine, et al. “Alkali Ions Retained from Synthesis Govern Microstructure and Transport in Solution-Processed SnSe.” <i>Chemistry of Materials</i>, vol. 38, no. 18, American Chemical Society, 2026, pp. 9323–9332, doi:<a href=\"https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.chemmater.6c01284\">10.1021/acs.chemmater.6c01284</a>."},"das_tickbox":"0","ec_funded":1,"scopus_import":"1","publication":"Chemistry of Materials","quality_controlled":"1","author":[{"id":"bd3fceba-dc74-11ea-a0a7-c17f71817366","full_name":"Fiedler, Christine","first_name":"Christine","last_name":"Fiedler"},{"last_name":"Horta","first_name":"Sharona","id":"03a7e858-01b1-11ec-8b71-99ae6c4a05bc","full_name":"Horta, Sharona"},{"last_name":"Navita","id":"6ebe278d-ba0b-11ee-8184-f34cdc671de4","orcid":"0000-0001-7408-8197","full_name":"Navita, Navita","first_name":"Navita"},{"last_name":"Maji","first_name":"Krishnendu","id":"76bc9e9f-ba0b-11ee-8184-90edabd17a58","full_name":"Maji, Krishnendu"},{"id":"8BD9DE16-AB3C-11E9-9C8C-2A03E6697425","full_name":"Kleinhanns, Tobias","orcid":"0000-0003-1537-7436","first_name":"Tobias","last_name":"Kleinhanns"},{"last_name":"Llorca","full_name":"Llorca, Jordi","first_name":"Jordi"},{"first_name":"Qi","full_name":"Wang, Qi","id":"0d37923a-aca1-11ef-951f-fd411b71d5f0","last_name":"Wang"},{"id":"1ffff7cd-ed76-11ed-8d5f-be5e7c364eb9","full_name":"Ramon, Maria Garcia","first_name":"Maria Garcia","last_name":"Ramon"},{"last_name":"Das","first_name":"Sambit","full_name":"Das, Sambit"},{"first_name":"Vikram","full_name":"Gavini, Vikram","last_name":"Gavini"},{"last_name":"Liu","id":"2A70014E-F248-11E8-B48F-1D18A9856A87","full_name":"Liu, Yu","orcid":"0000-0001-7313-6740","first_name":"Yu"},{"full_name":"Ibáñez, Maria","orcid":"0000-0001-5013-2843","id":"43C61214-F248-11E8-B48F-1D18A9856A87","first_name":"Maria","last_name":"Ibáñez"}],"status":"public","ddc":["540"],"month":"09","issue":"18","article_type":"original","day":"22","doi":"10.1021/acs.chemmater.6c01284","user_id":"2DF688A6-F248-11E8-B48F-1D18A9856A87"}]