Controllable assembly of ordered semiconductor Ag2S nanostructures

A direct and simple one-step route has been demonstrated to control the organization of semiconductor Ag2S nanocrystals. Several superstructures including hexagonal, quasi-orthogonal, and chain-like arrays assembled from Ag2S nanoparticles, and quasi-orthogonal and hexagonal structures assembled from Ag2S nanorods have been synthesized at low temperature by directly using inorganic compounds AgNO3 and Na2S as the reactants and dodecylthiol as the structure-directing agent. This method is very simple and general and has no requirement of the presynthesis process of Ag2S nanoparticles or nanorods.