Recycling nanowire templates for multiplex templating synthesis: a green and sustainable strategy.

Template-directed synthesis of nanostructures has been emerging as one of the most important synthetic methodologies. A pristine nanotemplate is usually chemically transformed into other compounds and sacrificed after templating or only acts as an inert physical template to support the new components. If a nanotemplate is costly or toxic as waste, to recycle such a nanotemplate becomes highly desirable. Recently, ultrathin tellurium nanowires (TeNWs) have been demonstrated as versatile chemical or physical templates for the synthesis of a diverse family of uniform 1D nanostructures. However, ultrathin TeNWs as template are usually costly and are discarded as toxic waste in ionic species after chemical reactions or erosion. To solve the above problem, we conceptually demonstrate that such a nanotemplate can be economically recycled from waste solutions and repeatedly used as template.