Unusual Formation of Single-Crystal Manganese Sulfide Microboxes Co-mediated by the Cubic Crystal Structure and Shape

摘要

Hollow micro and nanostructures with well-defined interior voids, low density, and surface permeability have attracted considerable interest because of their widespread applications in nanoreactors, drug delivery, gas sensors, and energy storage and conversion. More recently, efforts have been dedicated to the rational design of nonspherical hollow structures with well-defined morphologies in view of their unique physical and chemical properties. Although tem-plating strategies are versatile for the synthesis of many hollow spherical structures, controllable preparation of non-spherical hollow structures still suffers from many difficulties ranging from forming uniform coating around high curvature surfaces to the paucity of nonspherical templates available. Recently, many novel approaches based on different principles, such as galvanic replacement, chemical etching, the Kirkendall effect, solid-state decomposition,' and self-assembly,' have been employed for synthesizing nonspherical hollow structures of various materials, such as noble metals, transition metal oxides, and sulfides. In most cases, nonspherical hollow cavities are created though solution-phase methods by selective dissolution of the interior materials. Although the solution methods have enabled the preparation of hollow structures with nonspherical cavities, the resulting hollow structures are mostly characterized by such features as rough surfaces, polycrystallinity, non-uniformity in shell thickness, poorly defined composition, and broken shells.