This paper is highly cited for two reasons. One, it is the first paper showing that ZnS can form a nanobelt morphology, a new morphology in one-dimensional nanomaterials. Secondly, it shows that ZnS nanobelts have the wurtzite rather than zinc-blend structure, which is in contrast to thin films or bulk ZnS that normally takes the zinc-blend structure. This is a great example of size-dependent phase transformation phenomenon at nano-scale. As the current research is driving toward nano-scale phenomena and technology, synthesis of ZnS nanomaterials is of great interest. Quasi-one-dimensional nanostructures of ZnS are attractive because they are candidates for fabricating electronic and optoelectronic nanodevices. This wide band gap compound semiconductor has a high refractive index and a high transmittance in the visible range. Zinc sulfide has two types of crystal structures: hexagonal wurtzite ZnS (referred to as "hexagonal phase") and cubic zinc blend ZnS (referred to as "cubic phase"). Typically, the stable structure at room temperature is zinc blend, with few observances of stable wurtzite ZnS. In this paper, we report the first success of synthesizing stable wurtzite-structured nanobelts, nanocombs, and nanowindmills, using a simple catalyst-free thermal evaporation technique. The structures of these characteristic shapes have been fully characterized. Detailed study on the phase transformation from wurtzite to zinc blend is presented. It is anticipated that these novel structures will have some unique applications in nanophotonics.

The technique for synthesis of ZnS nanobelts is a simple, economic, and contrivable technique that can be used by many researchers. Evaporating ZnS powders at high temperatures, and under a reduced pressure flow of argon, can produce the nanobelts relatively quickly. By carefully selected experimental conditions, high-yield and high purity ZnS nanobelts can be received.

The most important character of these nanobelts is that they are semiconducting, with numerous functionality. The conductivity, bandgap, surface properties, optical properties, and many more can be tuned by introducing oxygen vacancies, offering a huge advantage for fabrication of functional nanodevices. Using the unique structural characters offered by the nanobelts, we have fabricated field-effect transistors and also ultra-sensitive nano-size gas sensors based on individual nanobelts. Nanobelt arrays have been fabricated for nanocantilevers. These materials are candidates for fabricating nanodevices to be integrated with micro-electromechanical systems. They are also ideal objects for fabricating sensors for biomedical applications, such as force sensors, blood flow sensors, cancer detection sensors based on in-situ, real time, non-destructive, and remote sensing.