Mesoscale organization of Cu7S4 nanowires: Formation of novel sheath-like nanotube array

Highly ordered and uniform array of Cu7S4 sheath-like nanotubes has been successfully prepared via a sacrificial template approach. These nanotubes have diameter of 250–600 nm and length of several micrometers with close tips. The wall of the nanotube is actually woven out of many well-distributed Cu7S4 nanowires with the diameter of 20–30 nm and the wall thickness of the nanotube is estimated to be about 60–70 nm. This novel hierarchical sheath-like nanotube array may find applications as mesoscale reactors or as other nanodevices.