Counterion Effects in Liquid Crystal Templating of Nanostructured CdS

We report the synthesis of cadmium sulfide containing a periodic array of nanometer-sized cylindrical pores. The nanostructured cadmium sulfide was synthesized in a hexagonal lyotropic liquid crystal by the reaction between H2S and various cadmium salts. Interestingly, the counterion of the cadmium salt had a pronounced effect on the regularity and periodicity of the pores. The dimension of the pores is commensurate with the hydrophobic cores of the liquid crystal, and one counterion even leads to hexagonally faceted nanostructured particles.