Solution-phase synthesis of spherical zinc sulfide nanostructures.

A facile solution-phase method has been developed to synthesize specially hollow and solid ZnS nanospheres. High-resolution TEM images on the nanospheres suggest their formation via the oriented aggregation of the primary ZnS nanocrystals. The morphology and size of the ZnS nanospheres can also be tuned easily by controlling the experimental conditions. These special spherical structures are very easily encapsulated within a uniform silica layer without any surface modification, suggesting potential applications in biochemistry and biodiagnostics.