Hollow micro-/nanostructures are of great interest in many current and emerging areas of technology. Perhaps the best-known example of the former is the use of fly-ash hollow particles generated from coal power plants as partial replacement for Portland cement, to produce concrete with enhanced strength and durability. This review is devoted to the progress made in the last decade in synthesis and applications of hollow micro-/nanostructures. We present a comprehensive overview of synthetic strategies for hollow structures. These strategies are broadly categorized into four themes, which include well-established approaches, such as conventional hard-templating and soft-templating methods, as well as newly emerging methods based on sacrificial templating and template-free synthesis. Success in each has inspired multiple variations that continue to drive the rapid evolution of the field. The Review therefore focuses on the fundamentals of each process, pointing out advantages and disadvantages where appropriate. Strategies for generating more complex hollow structures, such as rattle-type and nonspherical hollow structures, are also discussed. Applications of hollow structures in lithium batteries, catalysis and sensing, and biomedical applications are reviewed.

Hollow Micro-/Nanostructures: Synthesis and Applications**

The wide variety of core materials available, coupled with tunable surface properties, make nanoparticles an excellent platform for a broad range of biological and biomedical applications. This Review provides an introduction to nanoparticle–biomolecular interactions as well as recent applications of nanoparticles in biological sensing, delivery, and imaging of live cells and tissues.

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/adma.200703183

Applications of Nanoparticles in Biology

A general method to coat colloids with silica is described. The amphiphilic, nonionic polymer poly(vinylpyrrolidone) (PVP) was adsorbed to various colloidal particles such as small gold colloids, gold-shell silica-core particles, small and large silver colloids, boehmite rods, gibbsite platelets, and positively or negatively charged polystyrene. After this functionalization the stabilized particles could be transferred to a solution of ammonia in ethanol and directly coated with smooth and homogeneous silica shells of variable thickness by addition of tetraethoxysilane in a seeded growth process. The length of the polymer used strongly influences the stability of the colloids and the homogeneity and smoothness of the initial silica coating. This method is especially useful for colloidal particles that cannot be covered directly with SiO2 by a Stober-like growth process. Compared to methods known from the literature for the coating of such particles, this new method is faster and requires neither the use o...

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A General Method To Coat Colloidal Particles with Silica

Nanoparticles for bioimaging.

Colloidal aggregates with well-controlled sizes, shapes, and structures have been fabricated by dewetting aqueous dispersions of monodispersed spherical colloids across surfaces patterned with two-dimensional arrays of relief structures (or templates). The capability and feasibility of this approach have been demonstrated with the organization of polymer latex or silica beads into homo-aggregates, including circular rings; polygonal and polyhedral clusters; and linear, zigzag, and spiral chains. It was also possible to generate hetero-aggregates in the configuration of HF and H2O molecules that contained spherical colloids of different sizes, compositions, densities, functions, or a combination of these features. These uniform, well-defined aggregates of spherical colloids are ideal model systems to investigate the aerodynamic, hydrodynamic, and optical properties of colloidal particles characterized by non-spherical shapes and/or complex topologies. They can also serve as a new class of building blocks to generate hierarchically self-assembled structures that are expected to exhibit interesting features valuable to areas ranging from condensed matter physics to photonics.

Template-Assisted Self-Assembly of Spherical Colloids into Complex and Controllable Structures†

We report on a new type of composite particles consisting of a zinc sulfide (ZnS) core and a silica (SiO2) shell or vice versa. We developed and optimized these particles for photonic applications, because ZnS has a large refractive index and does not absorb light in the visible and both ZnS and SiO2 can be easily doped with fluorophores. Both kinds of morphologies were created using a seeded growth procedure using monodisperse seeds on which homogeneous layers with a well-defined thickness were grown. Moreover, the ZnS and SiO2 cores could be completely dissolved leaving SiO2 and ZnS shells, respectively, filled with solvent or air after drying. The particle morphology was investigated by electron microscopy. The optical properties were studied by extinction measurements and angle resolved light scattering and compared to scattering theory.

and Krassimir P. Velikov

Papers

Synthesis and Characterization of Monodisperse Core−Shell Colloidal Spheres of Zinc Sulfide and Silica