Micro-sized uniform square two-dimensional single crystalline ZnS thin nanosheets were prepared on a large scale. The ZnS thin nanosheets were grown via a simple solvothermal method using Zn(Ac)(2) powder and SC(NH2)(2) as the original reactant and ethylenediamine(en) as the solvent. The room-temperature photoluminescence (PL) measurement reveals that the as-prepared ZnS nanosheets have visible emission of 518.2 nm within the range of green. XRD, TEM, HRTEM and TGA analysis were also carried out to characterize the product. The square single-crystal ZnS nanosheets with visible emission within the range of green may have great potential applications in nanodevices. (c) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.