Sustained progress in nanocrystal synthesis has enabled recent use of these materials as inorganic, macromolecular precursors that can be chemically transformed into new nanostructures. 1, 2 The literature now contains several cases with chemical transformations being accompanied by varying degrees of modification of properties, including crystal structure and particle shape. [3][4][5] As a recent example, we demonstrated that as-synthesized metallic nanocrystals yield, upon oxidation, nanostructures with modified morphologies such as hollow particles. 6 This morphological change derives from directional material flows due to differing diffusivities for the reacting atomic species, in a nanoscale version of the well-known Kirkendall Effect. This general methodology has since been extended by other groups to produce nanostructures with various compositions and shapes. [7][8][9][10] Galvanic replacement reactions have been demonstrated to also produce hollow nanostructures. Xia et al. reported cases where a replacement reaction took place uniformly around Ag cubes of ~100 nm size, leading to formation of Au nanoboxes. The exterior shape of the nanoboxes tends to largely reproduce that of the sacrificial Ag counterparts. 11-15 Here, we report that performing the same replacement reaction on silver nanocrystals that are an order of magnitude smaller leads to significant changes in the external morphology of the Au shells as the reaction proceeds, while still creating a central void in each particle. Specifically, single crystalline silver nanoscrystals with a spherical shape act in the presence of Au 3+ as precursors for formation of hollow Au nanocrystals with truncated octahedral shape. The growth of significantly faceted particles from spherical precursors is made possible by the enhanced role of surface effects in our smaller nanocrystals. Production of hollow Au nanocrystals with faceted geometry allows increased tunability of optical properties as the surface plasmon resonance spectra of a hollow metallic nanocrystal depends strongly not only on the shell thickness, but also on the detailed shape. 16,17 To produce Ag nanocrystals with reduced sizes and improved monodispersity, we performed the synthesis using a modification of the polyol process in an organic solvent and at high temperature. 6,18 The silver salt AgNO 3 was reduced by a long chain polyol such as 1,2-hexadecanediol using an organic solvent, o-dichlorobenzene (DCB). Oleylamine was present as a surfactant. Near instant formation of silver nanocrystals upon reaction was indicated by the originally colorless solution turning dark brown. The transformation of solid nanocrystals into hollow ones was performed through galvanic replacement by dropwise addition of gold (III) chloride solution to diluted silver colloidal solution until the solution changed in color from dark yellow to blue. In this reaction, oleylamine likely serves two purposes. First, it solubilizes the precursors AgNO 3 and AuCl 3 in DCB. Second, it acts as a surfactant that controls t...