Fabrication and characterization of honeycomb-like superstructures consisting of ZnS nanosheets

Honeycomb-like superstructures consisting of ZnS nanosheets with uniform thickness of about 20nm and lateral dimension of several micrometers were built up from in-situ generated ZnS nanoparticles in the presence of ethylene diamine tetraacetic acid and butylamine. The result of HRTEM reveals that the size of the primary ZnS nanoparticles constituting the superstructures is about 2–4 nm. Upon their organization into complex superstructures, the quantum-confined effect of the ZnS nanosheets keeps well. The possible growth mechanism for ZnS superstructures was also proposed.