Patent ID: 8685841

Claim:
A method for producing a nanoscale heterostructure composed of a central metal core and an externally enveloping crystalline semiconductor shell, with more than 2% lattice mismatches between said core and said shell, wherein said method comprises the steps: (A) forming an enveloping metal (Me) overlayer over said metal core, said metal core having a diameter of from about 4 nm to about 6 nm; wherein Me is a metal possessing soft Lewis acidity; (B) incubating said composition (A) in the presence of: (1) an anion (X) under conditions sufficient to convert said enveloping metal (Me) overlayer into an enveloping Me 2 X shell of amorphous structure; and (2) a soft Lewis base (sLB); and (3) a transport metal ion (M n+ ) under conditions sufficient to cause the expulsion of said Me metal from said Me 2 X shell and the formation of a crystalline Mn n+ -X shell enveloping said metal core; thereby forming said nanoscale heterostructure.