Cores and effect: Water-dispersible core-shell structures and heterostructures incorporating gold nanocrystals of different shapes (polyhedra, cubes, and rods) and a variety of transition metal sulfide semiconductors (ZnS, CdS, NiS, Ag(2)S, and CuS) are synthesized using cetyltrimethylammonium bromide-encapsulated gold nanocrystals and metal thiobenzoates as starting materials.