Hollow and mesoporous aluminosilica-encapsulated Pt-CoOx for the selective hydrogenation of substituted nitroaromatics

Hollow and mesoporous aluminosilica nanoreactors (HMANs) with Pt-CoO_x cores (∼4.7 nm) and hollow aluminosilica shells (∼50 nm) were designed by a selective etching method. The Pt-CoO_x@HMANs demonstrate a greatly enhanced activity and selectivity for the hydrogenation of various substituted nitroaromatics compared to Pt@HMANs and Pt-CoO_x@SiO₂.

Spatially Confined Formation and Transformation of Nanocrystals within Nanometer-Sized Reaction Media

The extensive research performed in the past two decades has enabled the production of a range of colloidal nanocrystals, mostly through solution-based procedures that generate and transform nanostructures in bulk-phase solutions containing precursors and surfactants. However, the understanding and control of each nanocrystal (trans)formation step during the synthesis are still complicated because of the high complexity of this process, in which multiple diverse events such as nucleation, subsequent growth, attachment, and ripening occur simultaneously in bulk suspensions. Unlike well-established solution-based methods, solid-state reactions, which had been at the forefront of traditional inorganic materials chemistry, are quite rarely utilized in the realm of nanomaterials because of the high temperatures required for most solid-state reactions, as a result of which the clusters and NCs are prone to migrate through the bulk reaction medium and sinter together uncontrollably into large particles. We have been pursuing the "nanospace-confined approach" to explore the use of a variety of solid and hollow silica nanoparticles as either solid-state or solution-phase reaction media to carry out the syntheses and transformations of nanocrystals in a unique microenvironment, partitioning the reactants, intermediates, and transition states from the rest of the bulk reaction medium. Such nanoconfined systems have the potential not only to enable efficient and selective nanocrystal conversion chemistries but also to provide fundamental understanding pertaining to the synthetic evolution of nanostructures and transient mechanistic steps. The unique spaces with sizes of a few tens of nanometers inside nanoconfined systems offer the opportunity to observe and elucidate novel deconvoluted chemical phenomena that are impossible to investigate in bulk systems, and comprehensive understanding of nanoconfined chemistry can be implicated in explaining and controlling the macroscopic chemical behaviors. This Account describes our focused research on developing spatially confined platforms for nanocrystal syntheses and transformations, highlighting our diversity-oriented strategy, namely, the "postdecoration approach", which results in the evolution of new nanocatalytic sites in a preformed cavity for diversifying and controlling their morphologies, number, density and combinations. We discuss key examples of the "nanoconfined solid-state conversion approach" that involve novel reactions of nanocrystals within thermally stable solid silica nanospheres to synthesize and transform complex hybrid nanocrystals with increased complexity and functionality. In addition, an enlightening discussion of the examples of nanocrystal syntheses and conversions in nanoconfined solutions inside enclosed and exposed cavities of silica nanospheres is included. Finally, the important applications of nanospace-confined systems in various fields are also briefly discussed.

Formation Combined with Intercalation of Ni and Its Alloy Nanoparticles within Mesoporous Silica for Robust Catalytic Reactions

Intercalation of silica-supported nickel nanoparticles within mesoporous silica has been achieved through chemical reduction of nickel silicate with mesoporous silica ( mSiO₂) coated on inner and outer surfaces. Formation of nickel nanoparticles was controlled at nickel silicate-silica interface and was well-confined by mSiO₂ coating. Doping of other transition metals has been accomplished at the stage of nickel silicate formation, because of similarity in critical stability constants of respective metal salts. Doped nickel silicates were able to produce nickel-based bimetallic and trimetallic alloy nanoparticles within the final dual-shell configuration. This type of catalyst has been tested for both liquid- and gas-phase reactions, all showing good activity and selectivity. Ni nanoparticles could serve as the active catalyst or activity enhancer to other alloyed metals for different reactions. Especially for selective hydrogenation of trans-cinnamaldehyde, 100% selectivity toward hydrocinnamaldehyde at full conversion has been achieved without using noble metals. Spent catalysts in all cases showed no changes in terms of morphology and crystal structure, indicating this type of catalyst was robust under such reaction conditions, including gas-solid reaction systems.

Confined Nucleation and Growth of PdO Nanocrystals in a Seed-Free Solution inside Hollow Nanoreactor

This paper reports a novel and adaptable hollow nanoreactor system containing a solution of cucurbituril (CB) inside a silica nanoparticle (CB@h-SiO₂) which enables the nucleation and formation of nanocrystals (NCs) to be confined at the seed-free interior solution inside the cavity. The above nanospace confinement strategy restricted the volume of medium available for NC formation to the solution inside the cavity to a few tens of nanometers in size and allowed homogeneous NC nucleation to be examined. Harboring of CB@h-SiO₂ in a Pd²⁺ complex solution confined the nucleation and formation of PdO NCs to the well-isolated nanosized cavity protected by the silica nanoshell, allowing the convoluted formation of clustered PdO NCs to be thoroughly examined. The corresponding temporal investigation indicated that PdO NC clusters evolved via a distinct pathway combining dendritic growth on early nucleated seed NCs and attachment of small intermediate clusters. In addition, the explored strategy was used to fabricate a recyclable nanocatalyst system for selective catalytic oxidation of cinammyl alcohols, featuring a cavity-included Fe₃O₄/PdO nanocomposite.

Multishelled NiO Hollow Microspheres for High-performance Supercapacitors with Ultrahigh Energy Density and Robust Cycle Life

Multishelled NiO hollow microspheres for high-performance supercapacitors have been prepared and the formation mechanism has been investigated. By using resin microspheres to absorb Ni²⁺ and subsequent proper calcinations, the shell numbers, shell spacing and exterior shell structure were facilely controlled via varying synthetic parameters. Particularly, the exterior shell structure that accurately associated with the ion transfer is finely controlled by forming a single shell or closed exterior double-shells. Among multishelled NiO hollow microspheres, the triple-shelled NiO with an outer single-shelled microspheres show a remarkable capacity of 1280 F g⁻¹ at 1 A g⁻¹, and still keep a high value of 704 F g⁻¹ even at 20 A g⁻¹. The outstanding performances are attributed to its fast ion/electron transfer, high specific surface area and large shell space. The specific capacitance gradually increases to 108% of its initial value after 2500 cycles, demonstrating its high stability. Importantly, the 3S-NiO-HMS//RGO@Fe₃O₄ asymmetric supercapacitor shows an ultrahigh energy density of 51.0 Wh kg⁻¹ at a power density of 800 W kg⁻¹, and 78.8% capacitance retention after 10,000 cycles. Furthermore, multishelled NiO can be transferred into multishelled Ni microspheres with high-efficient H₂ generation rate of 598.5 mL H₂ min⁻¹ g⁻¹_Ni for catalytic hydrolysis of NH₃BH₃ (AB).

Asymmetric silica encapsulation toward colloidal Janus nanoparticles: a concave nanoreactor for template-synthesis of an electocatalytic hollow Pt nanodendrite

A novel reverse microemulsion strategy was developed to asymmetrically encapsulate metal-oxide nanoparticles in silica by exploiting the self-catalytic growth of aminosilane-containing silica at a single surface site. This strategy produced various colloidal Janus nanoparticles, including Au/Fe3O4@asy-SiO2, which were converted to an Au-containing silica nanosphere, Au@con-SiO2, by reductive Fe3O4 dissolution. The use of Au@con-SiO2 as a metal-growing nanoreactor allowed the templated synthesis of various noble-metal nanocrystals, including a hollow dendritic Pt nanoshell which exhibits significantly better electrocatalytic activities for the oxygen reduction reaction than commercial Pt/C catalysts.

A facile strategy to fabricate covalently linked raspberry-like nanocomposites with pH and thermo tunable structures

A simple and controllable route to prepare covalently bonded raspberry-like composite particles with pH and thermal dual-responsiveness.

Solid-State Conversion Chemistry of Multicomponent Nanocrystals Cast in a Hollow Silica Nanosphere: Morphology-Controlled Syntheses of Hybrid Nanocrystals

During thermal transformation of multicomponent nanocrystals in a silica nanosphere, FeAuPd alloy nanocrystals migrate outward and thereby leave a cavity in the silica matrix. Oxidation then converts these nanocrystals back into phase-segregated hybrid nanocrystals, AuPd@Fe3O4, with various morphologies. The FeAuPd-to-AuPd@Fe3O4 transformation was cast by the in situ generated hollow silica mold. Therefore, the morphological parameters of the transformed AuPd@Fe3O4 are defined by the degree of migration of the FeAuPd in the hollow silica nanoshell. This hollow silica-cast nanocrystal conversion was studied to develop a solid state protocol that can be used to produce a range of hybrid nanocrystals and that allows for systematic and sophisticated control of the resulting morphologies.

Fabrication of Supported AuPt Alloy Nanocrystals with Enhanced Electrocatalytic Activity for Formic Acid Oxidation through Conversion Chemistry of Layer-Deposited Pt(2+) on Au Nanocrystals

The exploitation of nanoconfined conversion of Au- and Pt-containing binary nanocrystals for developing a controllable synthesis of surfactant-free AuPt nanocrystals with enhanced formic acid oxidation (FAO) activity is reported, which can be stably and evenly immobilized on various support materials to diversify and optimize their electrocatalytic performance. In this study, an atomic layer of Pt(2+) species is discovered to be spontaneously deposited in situ on the Au nanocrystal generated from a reverse-microemulsion solution. The resulting Au/Pt(2+) nanocrystal thermally transforms into a reduced AuPt alloy nanocrystal during the subsequent solid-state conversion process within the SiO2 nanosphere. The alloy nanocrystals can be isolated from SiO2 in a surfactant-free form and then dispersedly loaded on the carbon sphere surface, allowing for the production of a supported electrocatalyst that exhibits much higher FAO activity than commercial Pt/C catalysts. Furthermore, by involving Fe3O4 nanocrystals in the conversion process, the AuPt alloy nanocrystals can be grown on the oxide surface, improving the durability of supported metal catalysts, and then uniformly loaded on a reduced graphene oxide (RGO) layer with high electroconductivity. This produces electrocatalytic AuPt/Fe3O4/RGO nanocomposites whose catalyst-oxide-graphene triple-junction structure provides improved electrocatalytic properties in terms of both activity and durability in catalyzing FAO.

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.