Abstract
Functionality in nanoengineered materials has been usually explored on structural and chemical compositional aspects of matter that exist in such solid materials. It is well known that the absence of solid matter is also relevant and the existence of voids confined in the nanostructure of certain particles is no exception. Indeed, over the past decades, there has been great interest in exploring hollow nanostructured materials that besides the properties recognized in the dense particles also provide empty spaces, in the sense of condensed matter absence, as an additional functionality to be explored. As such, the chemical synthesis of hollow nanostructures has been driven not only for tailoring the size and shape of particles with well-defined chemical composition, but also to achieve control on the type of hollowness that characterize such materials. This review describes the state of the art on late developments concerning the chemical synthesis of hollow nanostructures, providing a number of examples of materials obtained by distinct strategies. It will be apparent by reading this progress report that the absence of solid matter determines the functionality of hollow nanomaterials for several technological applications.
Highlights
Hollow nanostructures with controlled chemical composition and morphology have emerged as an important class of materials [1–4]
This review has presented a number of relevant synthetic methods for the preparation of complex hollow nanostructures
We suggest the further reading of recent review articles such as [157,158] which provide an interesting overview regarding the innovative methods for the synthesis of complex hollow materials and their potential in future applications
Summary
Hollow nanostructures with controlled chemical composition and morphology have emerged as an important class of materials [1–4]. Besides the functionality that arise due to the presence of the empty spaces, the nanostructured walls themselves can be exploited for specific functions, depending on the type of functional nanoparticles employed in the building-up process An example of such methods involves colloidal templating as described by Caruso and co-workers for the fabrication of hollow SiO2 and inorganic/polymer hybrid spheres [64]. Matijecand co-workers have reported a variety of colloidal core/shell particles with different morphologies [65–67] The combination of both approaches provides a number of possibilities for the fabrication of hollow structures based on hard-templating methods, allowing a wider range of hollow materials available for applications. A brief outlook about their main applications will be presented
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