Enhancing the Exploitation of Functional Nanomaterials through Spatial Confinement: The Case of Inorganic Submicrometer Capsules

Hollow inorganic nanostructures have attracted much interest in the last few years due to their many applications in different areas of science and technology. In this Feature Article, we overview part of our current work concerning the collective use of plasmonic and magnetic nanoparticles located in voided nanostructures and explore the more specific operational issues that should be taken into account in the design of inorganic nanocapsules. Along these lines, we focus our attention on the applications of silica-based submicrometer capsules aiming to stress the importance of creating nanocavities in order to further exploit the great potential of these functional nanomaterials. Additionally, we will examine some of the recent research on this topic and try to establish a perspective for future developments in this area.