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The article discusses a newly developed approach, which can be employed for the development of various metal-semiconductor core-shell heterostructures. The methodology is shown to be extremely efficient and effective, as it leads to exact morphological control in the heterostructures.

A simple approach is described for the fabrication of cuprous oxide ([Cu.sub.2]O) nanocages and nanoframes possessing an unusual truncated rhombic dodecahedral structure. Various gold nanostructures are encapsulated by nanocages and other metal and semiconductor nanostructures are also encapsulated by using [Cu.sub.2]O nanocages in order to provide enhanced properties and functions.

Gold nanoplates with three different ranges of sizes from tens of nanometers to a few microns in width are prepared using a simple thermal reduction approach with cetyltrimethylammonium bromide surfactant in aqueous solution. The nanoplates are formed in relatively short periods of time, compared to the hours or days of time required in some room-temperature nanoplate preparation procedures.