Self-Templated Assembly of AuI /AgI -Thiolate Sheets with Central Holes.

Composite crystalline sheets of AuI /AgI -thiolate with central holes are achieved by co-assembly of AgI -thiolate and AuI -thiolate in one-pot without sacrificial template. Both AgI -thiolate and AuI -thiolate can separately assemble to lamellar sheets with similar structures, which makes their co-assembly possible, while the differences in their assembly pathways make the co-assembly processes highly dynamic and complex. First, a core@shell structure with AgI -thiolate at the core was formed upon the mixing of the two, then the core@shell structure transformed to a hole@shell structure by dissociation of the core. Finally, some instable hole@shell structures further dissociated and grew on stable ones to generate holed AuI /AgI -thiolate composite sheets, in which the two components neither have severe phase separation nor blend uniformly at atomic level. By tuning the feeding ratios, the average diameter of the holes can be controlled. Therefore, the work demonstrates the advantage of co-assembly technique in obtaining complex structurers. The holed sheets can further assemble to porous macroscopic materials and transform to composite metal nanoparticles by pyrolysis.