title: Multitemplates for the hierarchical synthesis of diverse inorganic materials.
abstract: Described here is a new and highly general strategy for multiple-template (multitemplate) patterning. This process is significant because it allows us to create various unusual shapes such as solid spheres, yolk-shell spheres, flowerlike particles, and structured nanocomponents. Alcoholysis of the metal-organic precursors with mixtures of glycerol and various amounts of ethanol followed by calcination yields oxides. The glycerol plays the dual role of hierarchically assembling the metal-organic composites and stabilizing the structures during the subsequent conversions. Furthermore, we demonstrate for the first time that these metal-organic composites can be converted into oxides, nitrides, and highly graphitized carbon nanostructures. We show that these yolk-shell structures display superior photocatalytic activity and electrochemical properties.
authors.affiliation: The Education Ministry Key Laboratory of Resource Chemistry, Shanghai Key Laboratory of Rare Earth Functional Materials, Shanghai Normal University, Shanghai 200234, China.
authors.forename: Zhenfeng
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Bian
authors.forename: Jian
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zhu
authors.forename: Jinguo
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Shengxiong
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Xiao
authors.forename: Colin
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Nuckolls
authors.forename: Hexing
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Li
mesh_terms: D002244:Carbon / Q000737:chemistry*; D000431:Ethanol / Q000737:chemistry; D005990:Glycerol / Q000737:chemistry; D019216:Metals, Heavy / Q000737:chemistry*; D009570:Nitriles / Q000737:chemistry; D009942:Organometallic Compounds / Q000138:chemical synthesis* / Q000737:chemistry; D010087:Oxides / Q000737:chemistry; D010316:Particle Size; D013499:Surface Properties
chemical_list: D019216:Metals, Heavy; D009570:Nitriles; D009942:Organometallic Compounds; D010087:Oxides; D000431:Ethanol; D002244:Carbon; D005990:Glycerol