Synthesis and energy applications of m ulti‐shell micro/n ano‐spheres

Abstract

Nowadays, multishelled hollow materials having various compositions and structures have drawn huge attention of researchers. In comparison to the single-shelled hollow structures, which become advantageous and preferred due to their large void volume and high surface-to-volume ratio, it is considered that hollow materials with multi-shell structures can gain extra benefits from their specially constituted inner structures. This review article aims on the progress in the synthesis and energy applications of multishelled spherical nano-materials in last decade. The synthetic strategies include the hard templating, soft templating, sacrificial templating, and template-free technologies. The review further approaches toward the fundamentals of each of the synthetic strategies. Moreover, it addresses the challenges and the advantages of each of the synthetic strategies. This also emphasizes on the potential applications of the these specially structured micro- and nano-materials in the field of electrocatalysis, electrodes, lithium ion batteries, and solar cells. The correlation between the number of shells, geometric, and compositional structure with their properties and specific applications has also been addressed.