Versatile synthesis of metal-compound based mesoporous Janus nanoparticles

Yan Yu; Runfeng Lin; Hongyue Yu; Minchao Liu; Enyun Xing; Wenxing Wang; Fan Zhang; Dongyuan Zhao; Xiaomin Li

doi:10.1038/s41467-023-40017-2

Versatile synthesis of metal-compound based mesoporous Janus nanoparticles

Nat Commun. 2023 Jul 17;14(1):4249. doi: 10.1038/s41467-023-40017-2.

Authors

Yan Yu¹, Runfeng Lin¹, Hongyue Yu¹, Minchao Liu¹, Enyun Xing¹, Wenxing Wang¹, Fan Zhang¹, Dongyuan Zhao¹, Xiaomin Li²

Affiliations

¹ Department of Chemistry, Shanghai Stomatological Hospital & School of Stomatology, State Key Laboratory of Molecular Engineering of Polymers, iChem, Shanghai Key Laboratory of Molecular Catalysis and Innovative Materials, Fudan University, Shanghai, 200433, China.
² Department of Chemistry, Shanghai Stomatological Hospital & School of Stomatology, State Key Laboratory of Molecular Engineering of Polymers, iChem, Shanghai Key Laboratory of Molecular Catalysis and Innovative Materials, Fudan University, Shanghai, 200433, China. lixm@fudan.edu.cn.

Abstract

The construction of mesoporous Janus nanoparticles (mJNPs) with controllable components is of great significance for the development of sophisticated nanomaterials with synergistically enhanced functionalities and applications. However, the compositions of reported mJNPs are mainly the functionally inert SiO₂ and polymers. The universal synthesis of metal-compound based mJNPs with abundant functionalities is urgently desired, but remains a substantial challenge. Herein, we present a hydrophilicity mediated interfacial selective assembly strategy for the versatile synthesis of metal-compound based mJNPs. Starting from the developed silica-based mJNPs with anisotropic dual-surface of hydrophilic SiO₂ and hydrophobic organosilica, metal precursor can selectively deposit onto the hydrophilic SiO₂ subunit to form the metal-compound based mJNPs. This method shows good universality and can be used for the synthesis of more than 20 kinds of metal-compound based mJNPs, including alkali-earth metal compounds, transition metal compounds, rare-earth metal compounds etc. Besides, the composition of the metal-compound subunit can be well tuned from single to multiple metal elements, even high-entropy complexes. We believe that the synthesis method and obtained new members of mJNPs provide a very broad platform for the construction and application of mJNPs with rational designed functions and structures.