Shaping Nanoparticles for Interface Catalysis: Concave Hollow Spheres via Deflation-Inflation Asymmetric Growth

Design and Characterization of Concave Hollow Double-Layer Nanospheres for Efficient Cd(II) and Pb(II) Adsorption

Polymer-based adsorbents have emerged as promising candidates for heavy-metal remediation due to their tailorable porosity and multifunctional surfaces, yet challenges persist in achieving both structural precision and adsorption efficiency. Here, we report a concave hollow double-layer nanosphere (CHDN) synthesized through a facile self-assembly strategy engineered for selective capture of Cd(II) and Pb(II) ions. Comprehensive characterization via transmission electron microscopy (TEM), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), Raman spectroscopy, and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) confirmed the hierarchical architecture with abundant amino/hydroxyl moieties. The CHDN demonstrated exceptional adsorption capacities of 198.40 mg/g for Cd(II) and 60.34 mg/g for Pb(II), outperforming conventional adsorbents. Isotherm analysis revealed Cd(II) adsorption followed the Sips model (R2 > 0.99), while Pb(II) adhered to the Langmuir model, suggesting monolayer and heterogeneous binding mechanisms, respectively. Kinetic studies further corroborated chemisorption dominance through pseudo-second-order fitting for Cd(II) and Elovich compatibility for Pb(II). We propose a synergistic mechanism involving ligand complexation and ion exchange, facilitated by the dual functionality of surface groups and structural advantages of the concave architecture. This work provides a blueprint for designing spatially engineered polymers for environmental remediation.

Confinement Induces Morphological and Topological Transitions in Multivesicles

The study of self-assembly in confined spaces has gained significant attention among amphiphilic superstructures and colloidal design. The additional complexity introduced by interactions between contents and their containers, along with the effects of shape and lipid mixing, makes multivesicular bodies an interesting subject of study. Despite its promising applications in biomedicine, such as drug delivery and biomimetic materials, much remains unexplored. Here we investigate the effects of confinement on vesicles with varying lipid tail lengths. We first analyze the morphological changes of single spherical vesicles undergoing dehydration, which leads to a prolate-to-oblate transition. Our findings reveal that reductions in water content induce changes of shape while minimally affecting the surface area needed to maintain the hydration layer of lipid phosphate groups. Additionally, using extensive coarse-grained molecular dynamics simulations, we explore how vesicles confined within other vesicles evolve through topological changes into unexpected structures, mainly influenced by the lipid hydrocarbon lengths. Our results highlight the interplay between confinement, curvature-induced lipid sorting, and lipid-mixing entropy, leading to exquisitely self-assembled superstructures.

Phenolic multiple kinetics-dynamics and discrete crystallization thermodynamics in amorphous carbon nanostructures for electromagnetic wave absorption

The lack of a chemical platform with high spatial dimensional diversity, coupled with the elusive multi-scale amorphous physics, significantly hinder advancements in amorphous electromagnetic wave absorption (EWA) materials. Herein, we present a synergistic engineering of phenolic multiple kinetic dynamics and discrete crystallization thermodynamics, to elucidate the origin of the dielectric properties in amorphous carbon and the cascade effect during EWA. Leveraging the scalability of phenolic synthesis, we design dozens of morphologies from the bottom up and combine with in-situ pyrolysis to establish a nanomaterial ecosystem of hundreds of amorphous carbon materials. Based on controlled discrete crystallization, nano-curvature regulation of spatial inversion symmetry-breaking structures, and surface electric field enhancement from multi-shell structures, the multi-scale charge imbalance triggers intense polarization. Both experiments and theories show that each scale is essential, which collectively drives broadband absorption (8.46 GHz) and efficient dissipation (-54.77 dB) of EWA performance. Our work on the amorphous nanostructure platform and the cascade effect can contribute to uncovering the missing pieces in amorphous physics and EWA research.

Asymmetric Nanobowl Confinement-Engineered "Plasmonic Storms" for Machine Learning-Assisted Ultrasensitive Immunochromatographic Assay of Pathogens

Efficient field enhancement effects through plasmonic chemistry for ultrasensitive biosensing still face a great challenge. Herein, nanoconfinement engineering accumulation and synergistic effects are used to develop a "plasmonic storms" strategy with a high field enhancement effect, and gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) are used as active sites for a proof of concept because of their distinctive localized surface plasmon resonance and neighborly coupled electromagnetic field. Briefly, a large number of AuNPs are selectively and accurately stacked in the confined nanocavity of the bowl-like nanostructure through an in situ-synthesized strategy, which provides a space for strong coupling of electromagnetic fields between these adjacent AuNPs, forming "plasmonic storms" with an enhanced field that is 3 orders of magnitude higher than that of free AuNPs. The proposed nanoconfinement-engineered "plasmonic storms" are demonstrated by surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) and photothermal experiments and theoretically visualized by finite element simulation. Finally, the proposed "plasmonic storms" are used for enhanced colorimetric/SERS/photothermal immunochromatographic assay to detect Salmonella typhimurium with the help of a machine learning algorithm, achieving a low limit of detection of 142 CFU mL-1, highlighting the potential of nanoconfinement in biosensing.

Design of hollow structured nanoreactors for liquid-phase hydrogenations

Inspired by the attractive structures and functions of natural matter (such as cells, organelles and enzymes), chemists are constantly exploring innovative material platforms to mimic natural catalytic systems, particularly liquid-phase hydrogenations, which are of great significance for chemical upgrading and synthesis. Hollow structured nanoreactors (HSNRs), featuring unique nanoarchitectures and advantageous properties, offer new opportunities for achieving excellent catalytic activity, selectivity, stability and sustainability. Notwithstanding the great progress made in HSNRs, there still remain the challenges of precise synthetic chemistry, and mesoscale catalytic kinetic investigation, and smart catalysis. To this extent, we provide an overview of recent developments in the synthetic chemistry of HSNRs, the unique characteristics of these materials and catalytic mechanisms in HSNRs. Finally, a brief outlook, challenges and further opportunities for their synthetic methodologies and catalytic application are discussed. This review might promote the creation of further HSNRs, realize the sustainable production of fine chemicals and pharmaceuticals, and contribute to the development of materials science.

Steam activation of porous concave polymer nanospheres for high-efficient chromium and cadmium removal

The issue of heavy metal contamination in water is a global concern, and the development of highly efficient adsorbent materials is crucial for the removal and detoxification of heavy metals. Polymer-based materials have emerged as a promising class of adsorbents due to their ability to capture heavy metal pollutants and reduce them to less toxic forms. The limited surface area of conventional polymer adsorbents makes them less effective for high-capacity adsorption. Herein, we present a low-temperature steam activation approach to address this challenge. This activation approach leads to a remarkable increase of over 20 times in the surface area of concave aminophenol-formaldehyde (APF) polymer nanospheres (from 45 to 961 m2/g) while preserving their reductive functional groups. The activated concave APF nanospheres were evaluated for their adsorption capabilities towards two typical heavy metal ions (i.e., Cr(VI) and Cd(II)) in aqueous solutions. The maximum adsorption capacities achieved were 1054 mg g-1 for Cr(VI) and 342 mg g-1 for Cd(II), which are among the highest performances reported in the literature and are much higher than the capacities of the non-activated APF nanospheres. Additionally, approximately 71.5 % of Cr(VI) was simultaneously reduced to Cr(III) through the benzenoid amine pathway during adsorption, highlighting the crucial role of the steam activation strategy in enhancing the capability of polymer adsorbents.

Anisotropic hat-like carbon nanoparticles with tunable inner hollow architectures by growth and dissolution kinetics control

The synthesis of nanoparticles with a hollow and anisotropic structure have attracted considerable interest in synthetic methodology and diverse potential applications, but endowing them with delicate control of the hollow structure and outer anisotropic morphology remains a significant challenge. In this study, anisotropic nanoparticles with hat-like morphology are prepared via a kinetics-controlled growth and dissolution strategy. Starting from forming solid polymer nanospheres with location-specific compositional chemistry distribution based on the distinct reactivity and growth kinetics of two reactants. After etching by acetone, the inhomogeneity nanospheres transformed to hat-like nanoparticles through the kinetics-controlled dissolution of two kinds of precursors. Due to chemical etching and repolymerization reactions occurring within a single nanospheres, an autonomous asymmetrical repolymerization and concave process are observed, which is novel at the nanoscale. Moreover, regulating the amount of ammonia significantly impacts the growth kinetics of precursors, primarily affecting the composition and subsequent dissolution process of solid polymer nanospheres, which play an important role in constructing polymer nanoparticles with varying morphologies and internal structures. The as-synthesized hat-like carbon nanoparticles with an open carbon structure, highly porous shell, and favorable N-doped functionalities demonstrate a potential candidate for lithium-sulfur batteries.

Sulfhydryl-Functionalized Amino Group Polymer Microcomposites toward Efficient Adsorption of Aqueous Cr(VI), As(III), Cd(II), and Pb(II)

The development of efficient adsorbents for heavy metal pollution, especially five toxic heavy metals, has attracted great research interest. Polymer-based adsorbents have aroused research value for their abundant functional groups and high porosity to the ability to capture metal ions. We designed a sulfhydryl-functionalized polymer microcomposite to take up Cr(VI), As(III), Cd(II), and Pb(II). The adsorption capacity achieved was 64.2 mg g-1 for Cr(VI), 44.9 mg g-1 for As(III), 35.5 mg g-1 for Cd(II), and 18.2 mg g-1 for Pb(II). Langmuir and Sips isotherm model is dominant for As(III), Cd(II), and Pb(II) adsorption. Pseudo-second-order kinetic models can better describe the adsorption behavior of Cr(VI), implying that chemisorption is accompanied by Cr(VI) adsorption. Cr(VI) simultaneous reduction to Cr(III) through the benzenoid amine oxidate pathway was the dominant mechanism, precipitation for Cd(II) adsorption was convinced, and chelation between As(III)/Pb(II) and─SH group and complexation between Pb(II) and C═O or benzene hydroxyl were a plausible mechanism for As(III) and Pb(II) adsorption.

Design of Hollow Nanoreactors for Size- and Shape-Selective Catalytic Semihydrogenation Driven by Molecular Recognition

Mimicking the structures and functions of cells to create artificial organelles has spurred the development of efficient strategies for production of hollow nanoreactors with biomimetic catalytic functions. However, such structure are challenging to fabricate and are thus rarely reported. We report the design of hollow nanoreactors with hollow multishelled structure (HoMS) and spatially loaded metal nanoparticles. Starting from a molecular-level design strategy, well-defined hollow multishelled structure phenolic resins (HoMS-PR) and carbon (HoMS-C) submicron particles were accurately constructed. HoMS-C serves as an excellent, versatile platform, owing to its tunable properties with tailored functional sites for achieving precise spatial location of metal nanoparticles, internally encapsulated (Pd@HoMS-C) or externally supported (Pd/HoMS-C). Impressively, the combination of the delicate nanoarchitecture and spatially loaded metal nanoparticles endow the pair of nanoreactors with size-shape-selective molecular recognition properties in catalytic semihydrogenation, including high activity and selectivity of Pd@HoMS-C for small aliphatic substrates and Pd/HoMS-C for large aromatic substrates. Theoretical calculations provide insight into the pair of nanoreactors with distinct behaviors due to the differences in energy barrier of substrate adsorption. This work provides guidance on the rational design and accurate construction of hollow nanoreactors with precisely located active sites and a finely modulated microenvironment by mimicking the functions of cells.

Spatial Specific Janus S-Scheme Photocatalyst with Enhanced H2 O2 Production Performance

Photocatalytic oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) for H₂ O₂ production in the absence of sacrificing agents is a green approach and of great significance, where the design of photocatalysts with high performance is the central task. Herein, a spatial specific S-scheme heterojunction design by introducing a novel semiconducting pair with a S-scheme mechanism in a purpose-designed Janus core-shell-structured hollow morphology is reported. In this design, TiO₂ nanocrystals are grown inside the inner wall of resorcinol-formaldehyde (RF) resin hollow nanocakes with a reverse bumpy ball morphology (TiO₂ @RF). The S-scheme heterojunction preserves the high redox ability of the TiO₂ and RF pair, the spatial specific Janus design enhances the charge separation, promotes active site exposure, and reduces the H₂ O₂ decomposition to a large extent. The TiO₂ @RF photocatalyst shows a high H₂ O₂ yield of 66.6 mM g^-1  h^-1 and solar-to-chemical conversion efficiency of 1.11%, superior to another Janus structure (RF@TiO₂ ) with the same heterojunction but a reversed Janus spatial arrangement, and most reported photocatalysts under similar reaction conditions. The work has paved the way toward the design of next-generation photocatalysts for green synthesis of H₂ O₂ production.

Dual/Triple Template-Induced Evolved Emulsion for Controllable Construction of Anisotropic Carbon Nanoparticles from Concave to Convex

Anisotropic mesoporous carbon (AMC) nanoparticles with asymmetric external morphologies, topological internal structure, and superior performance of carbon species are attracting great attention because of their seductive features differentiating them from symmetric nanoparticles. However, a bewildering challenge but crucial desire remains to endow them with flexibly tunable morphology and pore structure. Herein, a dual/triple-templating evolved emulsion strategy for tunable fabrication of AMC nanoparticles with distinctive defined structure by interface-energy-induced self-assembly is first reported based on a brand-new mechanism. It describes the possible formation process of the concave-cavity structure and allows for manipulation of the longitudinal and lateral sizes systematically by adjusting emulsion polarity and sodium oleate dosage, respectively. Interestingly, the internal pore structure can be rearranged into radial channels and the external morphology can realize structural transformation from concave to convex by innovatively introducing the third template n-hexanol, which is unprecedented at nanoscale. Remarkably, due to the excellent properties of carbon species and unique structural characteristics, AMC nanoparticles not only demonstrate good biocompatibility but also exhibit splendid performance in improving the dissolution and release rates of insoluble drug and enhancing the enzyme catalytic efficiency. Generally, this approach provides new inspiration and insights for expanding exquisite anisotropic nanomaterials for many potential applications.

NIR light-propelled bullet-shaped carbon hollow nanomotors with controllable shell thickness for the enhanced dye removal

Materials with asymmetric nanostructures have attracted tremendous research attention due to their unique structural characteristics, excellent physicochemical properties, and promising prospects. However, it is still difficult to design and fabricate bullet-shaped nanostructure due to its structural complexity. Herein, for the first time, we successfully constructed NIR light-propelled bullet-shaped hollow carbon nanomotors (BHCNs) with an open mouth on the bottom of nano-bullet for the enhanced dye removal, by employing bullet-shaped silica nanoparticles (B-SiO2 NPs) as a hard template. BHCNs were formed by the growth of polydopamine (PDA) layer on the heterogeneous surface of B-SiO2 NPs, followed by the carbonization of PDA and subsequent selective etching of SiO2. The shell thickness of BHCNs was able to be facilely controlled from ≈ 14 to 30 nm by tuning the added amount of dopamine. The combination of streamlined bullet-shaped nanostructure with good photothermal conversion efficiency of carbon materials facilitated the generation of asymmetric thermal gradient field around itself, thus driving the motion of BHCNs by self-thermophoresis. Noteworthily, the diffusion coefficient (De) and velocity of BCHNs with shell thickness of 15 nm (BHCNs-15) reached to 43.8 μm⋅cm-2 and 11.4 μm⋅s-1, respectively, under the illumination of 808 nm NIR laser with the power density of 1.5 W⋅cm-2. The NIR laser propulsion caused BCHNs-15 to enhance the removal efficiency (53.4% vs. 25.4%) of methylene blue (MB) as a typical dye because the faster velocity could produce the higher micromixing role between carbon adsorbent and MB. Such a smart design of the streamlined nanomotors may provide a promising potential in environmental treatment, biomedical and biosensing applications.

Multilevel Hollow Phenolic Resin Nanoreactors with Precise Metal Nanoparticles Spatial Location toward Promising Heterogeneous Hydrogenations

Hollow nanostructures with fascinating properties have inspired numerous interests in broad research fields. Cell-mimicking complex hollow architectures with precise active components distributions are particularly important, while their synthesis remains highly challenging. Herein, a "top-down" chemical surgery strategy is introduced to engrave the 3-aminophenol formaldehyde resin (APF) spheres at nanoscale. Undergoing the cleavage of (Ar)CN bonds with ethanol as chemical scissors and subsequent repolymerization process, the Solid APF transform to multilevel hollow architecture with precise nanospatial distribution of organic functional groups (e.g., hydroxymethyl and amine). The transformation is tracked by electron microscopy and solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance techniques, the category and dosage of alcohol are pivotal for constructing multilevel hollow structures. Moreover, it is demonstrated the evolution of nanostructures accompanied with unique organic microenvironments is able to accurately confine multiple gold (Au) nanoparticles, leading to the formation of pomegranate-like particles. Through selectively depositing palladium (Pd) nanoparticles onto the outer shell, bimetallic Au@APF@Pd catalysts are formed, which exhibit excellent hydrogenation performance with turnover frequency (TOF) value up to 11257 h^-1 . This work provides an effective method for precisely manipulating the nanostructure and composition of polymers at nanoscale and sheds light on the design of catalysts with precise spatial active components.

Dendritic Mesoporous Silica Hollow Spheres for Nano-Bioreactor Application

Mesoporous silica materials have attracted great research interest for various applications ranging from (bio)catalysis and sensing to drug delivery. It remains challenging to prepare hollow mesoporous silica nanoparticles (HMSN) with large center-radial mesopores that could provide a more efficient transport channel through the cell for guest molecules. Here, we propose a novel strategy for the preparation of HMSN with large dendritic mesopores to achieve higher enzyme loading capacity and more efficient bioreactors. The materials were prepared by combining barium sulfate nanoparticles (BaSO4 NP) as a hard template and the in situ-formed 3-aminophenol/formaldehyde resin as a porogen for directing the dendritic mesopores’ formation. HMSNs with different particle sizes, shell thicknesses, and pore structures have been prepared by choosing BaSO4 NP of various sizes and adjusting the amount of tetraethyl orthosilicate added in synthesis. The obtained HMSN-1.1 possesses a high pore volume (1.07 cm3 g−1), a large average pore size (10.9 nm), and dendritic mesopores that penetrated through the shell. The advantages of HMSNs are also demonstrated for enzyme (catalase) immobilization and subsequent use of catalase-loaded HMSNs as bioreactors for catalyzing the H2O2 degradation reaction. The hollow and dendritic mesoporous shell features of HMSNs provide abundant tunnels for molecular transport and more accessible surfaces for molecular adsorption, showing great promise in developing efficient nanoreactors and drug delivery vehicles.

Nanoengineering of N-doped Mesoporous Carbon Nanoparticles with Adjustable Internal Cavities via Emulsion-Induced Assembly

The preparation of mesoporous carbonaceous materials with particularly adjustable morphology is currently a hot area of research in mesoporous materials. Herein, a novel approach is reported for the construction of N-doped multicavity mesoporous carbon nanoparticles (NMMCNs) based on the “emulsion swelling–acid curing mechanism” using a nanoemulsion assembly method under a high-speed shearing force. Intriguingly, this approach adopted a novel acid (HCl) curing procedure. Impressively, the morphology evolution from an internal multicavity to a single cavity and then to a non-cavity interior structure could be accomplished by simply varying the synthesis parameters. Additionally, this synthesis approach ingeniously overcame the following problems: (i) technically, the employment of high temperatures and high pressures in traditional hydrothermal reaction curing environments is avoided; (ii) this approach removes the requirement for silicon coating, which provides a limited pyrolysis condition, to obtain a multi-chamber structure. Resveratrol (Res) is an insoluble natural medicine and was successfully loaded into NMMCNs, thereby the Res–NMMCNs delivery system was constructed. Importantly, the Res–NMMCNs delivery system could still retain the antitumor and antioxidant activity of Res in vitro.

Serum Metabolic Fingerprints on Bowl-Shaped Submicroreactor Chip for Chemotherapy Monitoring

Chemotherapy is a primary cancer treatment strategy, the monitoring of which is critical to enhancing the survival rate and quality of life of cancer patients. However, current chemotherapy monitoring mainly relies on imaging tools with inefficient sensitivity and radiation invasiveness. Herein, we develop the bowl-shaped submicroreactor chip of Au-loaded 3-aminophenol formaldehyde resin (denoted as APF-bowl&Au) with a specifically designed structure and Au loading content. The obtained APF-bowl&Au, used as the matrix of laser desorption/ionization mass spectrometry (LDI MS), possesses an enhanced localized electromagnetic field for strengthened small metabolite detection. The APF-bowl&Au enables the extraction of serum metabolic fingerprints (SMFs), and machine learning of the SMFs achieves chemotherapy monitoring of ovarian cancer with area-under-the-curve (AUC) of 0.81-0.98. Furthermore, a serum metabolic biomarker panel is preliminarily identified, exhibiting gradual changes as the chemotherapy cycles proceed. This work provides insights into the development of nanochips and contributes to a universal detection platform for chemotherapy monitoring.

Asymmetric Silica Nanoparticles with Tailored Spiky Coverage Derived from Silica-Polymer Cooperative Assembly for Enhanced Hemocompatibility and Gene Delivery

Asymmetric mesoporous silica nanoparticles (AMSNs) with one side featuring a spiky nanotopography, while the other side is smooth and solid, were synthesized via an ethylenediamine (EDA)-directed silica-polymer cooperative assembly approach. By simply varying the EDA amount (x), AMSNs-x samples with adjustable spiky surface coverage were obtained. It is demonstrated that a spiky coverage higher than 50% improved the hemocompatibility of AMSN-x, possibly due to the reduced contact area of the smooth side exposed to the red blood cell (RBC) membrane. Moreover, AMSNs-175 and AMSNs-200 with high spiky coverage enhanced their plasmid DNA (pDNA) loading and binding capability, as well as cellular uptake into HEK-293T cells, thus resulting in high transfection performance. The good hemocompatibility and high performance in pDNA delivery of AMSNs-x with high spiky coverage allow them to serve as promising nonviral vectors for potential applications in gene therapies and DNA vaccines.

The Role of Surface Curvature in Electrocatalysts

Excessive consumption of fossil fuels has caused unavoidable environmental problems. The development of renewable and clean alternatives is essential for the sustainable and green development of human society. Electrocatalysts are most important parts in these energy-related devices. Recently, scientists found that the surface curvature of electrocatalysts could play an important role for the improvement of catalytic performance and the optimization of intrinsic catalytic activity during electrocatalytic process. The role of surface curvature in electrocatalysts is still under investigating. In this minireview, we summarized the latest progress of electrocatalysts with different surface curvatures and their applications in energy-related applications. This review mainly involves the strategies for preparation of electrocatalysts with different surface curvatures, three typical electrocatalysts with different surface curvatures (curled surface, onion-like structure, and spiral structure), and the potential mechanisms that surface curvature in electrocatalysts affects activities.

Synthesis of V-notched half-open polymer microspheres via facile solvent-tuned self-assembly

Polymer microspheres with a special V-notched half-open architecture were synthesized in a mixed solvent of water/ethanol (1 : 1 v/v) at room temperature.