In this contribution, porous hollow silica nanoparticles using inorganic nanosized ZnS as a template were prepared. The hydrothermal method was used to synthesize pure ZnS nanospheres material. The ZnS@SiO2 core-shell nanocomposites were prepared using a simple sol-gel method successfully. The hollow silica nanostructures were achieved by selective removal of the ZnS core. The morphology, structure, and composition of the product were determined using powder X-ray diffraction (XRD), emission scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR). The results demonstrated clearly that the pure ZnS nanoparticles are in a spherical form with the average size of 40？nm and correspond with zinc blend structure. The porous hollow silica nanoparticles obtained were exploited as drug carriers to investigate in vitro release behavior of amoxicillin in simulated body fluid (SBF). UV-visible spectrometry was carried out to determine the amount of amoxicillin entrapped in the carrier. Amoxicillin release profile from porous hollow silica nanoparticles followed a three-stage pattern and indicated a delayed release effect. 1. Introduction During the past decade, there have been widespread research efforts to develop architecture and fabrication of core-shell composite materials and hollow spheres of nanometer to micrometer size with special physical and chemical properties. They have demanding applications in pharmaceuticals, biology, optics, catalysts, and drug delivery [1–7]. II-VI semiconductor nanocrystals attract much attention because of their size dependent photo and electroluminescence properties and promising applications in optoelectronics [8–11]. Among the family of II-VI semiconductors, zinc sulfide semiconductor is an important member of this family because of its favorable electronic and optical properties for optoelectronic applications. ZnS can have two different crystal structures (zinc blende and wurtzite); both have the same band gap at 340？nm (3.66？eV) and the direct band structure. ZnS has been used widely as an important phosphor for photoluminescence (PL), electroluminescence (EL), and cathodoluminescence (CL) devices, due to its better chemical stability compared to other chalcogenides, such as ZnS. In optoelectronics, it finds use as light emitting diode, reflector, dielectric filter, and window material [12–15]. Due to the fact that SiO2 coating semiconductor nanocrystals have an interesting field of study, they are used as bioconjugation and excellent luminescent probes
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