A novel in situ chemical precipitation method to directly synthesize CdS nanocrystal arrays in the presence of microporous templates of poly(glycidyl methacrylate-grafted-3,3'-dimethyl-(4-hydroxyphenylazanediyl) bis(2-methylpropanoate))-random-polystyrene (PGHS), which were formed by self-assembling dendritic-linear PGHS copolymers via the solvent-induced phase separation process, were investigated. The surface morphology of the PGHS template and the spatial positions of the CdS nanocrystals in the PGH-CdS could be easily and quickly controlled by altering the content of the dendritic GMA-HPAM segments. The diameters of the CdS nanocrystals on the PGHS-CdS template were uniform in the range of 3-4 nm. Large-area, hexagonally ordered CdS nanocrystal-array domains were discovered in the PGHS2-CdS template used in this study. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.