This project aims to develop a wet chemical etching method to control the shape of nanocrystalline materials. Uniform spherical nanocrystals will be first synthesized using existing methods, and then chemically etched to form new shapes as the result of different etching rates on different crystal facets. New physical properties (e.g. optical, magnetic and electronic properties) will emerge along with the novel geometric shapes. This proposal asks for funds to help generating preliminary results for a full grant application. Dr. Yin was a staff scientist at the Molecular Foundry, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, before he arrived in UCR in 2006.