Single-crystalline Ag2S hollow nanohexagons and their assembly into ordered arrays

Single-crystalline Ag2S hollow nanohexagons with better quality and narrower size distribution were successfully synthesized in aqueous solution at low temperature. The obtained products were characterized by using X-ray power diffractometer (XRD), field emission scanning electronic microscopy (FE-SEM) and transmission electronic microscopy (TEM). The possible mechanism for the formation of hollow area and low material density, single-crystalline Ag2S hollow nanohexagons and their ordered arrays were nanohexagons was discussed. The hollow nanohexagons could "bottom-up" assemble into large-scale high-quality ordered arrays with the ordering over a distance up to several micrometers and even larger because of their high uniformity and van der Waals interactions. Due to anisotropic behaviour, large surface area and low material density, single-crystallin Ag2S hollow nanohexagons and their ordered arrays were expected to exhibit superior properties and to have potential applications in fabricating new useful nanodevices in the future. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.