title: Loading of silica spheres on concaved CuS cuboctahedrons using 3-aminopropyltrimethoxysilane as a linker.
abstract: A new composite structure made of unique CuS cuboctahedron crystals and coating silica spheres with diameters ranged from 30 to 730 nm has been demonstrated. 3-aminopropyltrimethoxysilane acted as a linker, which provided hydrogen bonding and metal-ligand bonding interaction with the facets of CuS crystals and covalent bonding of its functional silane groups onto the surface of hydrophilic silica spheres, resulting in the formation of such a CuS/silica composite structure. The suitable proportion of the amount of silica spheres and CuS crystals determined the perfection of the CuS crystals/silica composite. The successful loading of silica spheres onto the polar facets of unique CuS cuboctahedron crystals represents a new way to prepare novel composite materials with special shape.
authors.affiliation: Division of Nanomaterials & Chemistry, Hefei National Laboratory for Physical Sciences at Microscale, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230026, People's Republic of China.
authors.forename: Yong
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Wan
authors.forename: Chunyan
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.forename: Yulin
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Min
authors.forename: Shu-Hong
authors.initials: SH
authors.lastname: Yu