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Colloidal nanocrystals exhibit a wide range of size- and shape-dependent properties and have found application in myriad fields, incuding optics, electronics, mechanics, drug delivery and catalysis, to name but a few^,,. Synthetic protocols that enable the simple and convenient production of colloidal nanocrystals with controlled size, shape and composition are therefore of key general importance^,. Current strategies include organic solution-phase synthesis, thermolysis of organometallic precursors^,, sol–gel processes, hydrothermal reactions and biomimetic and dendrimer templating^,,. Often, however, these procedures require stringent experimental conditions, are difficult to generalize, or necessitate tedious multistep reactions and purification. Recently, linear amphiphilic block co-polymer micelles have been used as templates to synthesize functional nanocrystals^,, but the thermodynamic instability of these …