Abstract
In the past two decades, we have learned a great deal about self-assembly of dendritic metal oxide structures, partially inspired by the nanostructures mimicking the aesthetic hierarchical structures of ferns and corals. The self-assembly process involves either anisotropic polycondensation or molecular recognition mechanisms. The major driving force for research in this field is due to the wide variety of applications in addition to the unique structures and properties of these dendritic nanostructures. Our purpose of this minireview is twofold: (1) to showcase what we have learned so far about how the self-assembly process occurs; and (2) to encourage people to use this type of material for drug delivery, renewable energy conversion and storage, biomaterials, and electronic noses.
Highlights
A dendritic structure exhibits a tree-like shape containing stems and branches
To synthesize dendritic mesopores within silica, Yu and coworkers took advantage of a mixture of surfactants interacting with reactants: (cetyltrimethylammonium (CTA+ ) tosylate), imidazolium ionic liquid (IL), triethanolamine (TEAH3 ), triblock copolymer (F127), tetraethyl orthosilicate (TEOS), and water [93]
As an organized assembly of 1D or 2D nanostructures, dendritic metal oxide-related materials exhibit a high surface area/weight ratio and open large void space, which are important for their applications in sensing, catalysis, medicine, biomaterials, as well as energy conversion and storage devices
Summary
A dendritic structure exhibits a tree-like shape containing stems and branches It can be a macromolecule, supramolecule, or nanostructure. Dendritic nanostructures of metal oxides or organic-inorganic hybrids emerged from the field of material science These dendritic structures are composed of organized 1D or 2D inorganic particulates [11], and the latter is made of 1D or 2D macromolecules/supramolecules (Scheme 1). Chemical vapor deposition and electrodeposition are well-established approaches for making sophisticated nanostructures [13,14], but the sol-gel and hydrothermal methods are more scalable for commercialization Due to their special hierarchical nanostructures, dendritic metal oxides exhibit open macropores (>50 nm) and the large mesopores (2–50 nm). This problem can be solved by using the electrode with a dendritic nanostructure
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