Synthesis of metal sulfide nanoboxes based on Kirkendall effect and Pearson hardness

The monodisperse metal sulfide (Ag2S, CdS, PbS, ZnS, and AgInS2) yolk–shell nanoboxes with sizes of about 220 nm were synthesized through a sacrificial template-directed method based on the Kirkendall effect. In a typical synthetic process for nanoboxes, there were two steps of ion-exchange. The first anion exchange was based on the control of solubility product rule, halide ions in silver halide were replaced by chalcogenide ions, following this a series of metal chalcogenide nanoboxes were obtained based on Pearson hard–soft acids and bases (HSAB) of various metal ions. The obtained CdS showed preferable absorption in the visible light region. This facile method is expected to obtain other nanostructures with preserved morphology.