title: Hierarchically nanostructured materials for sustainable environmental applications.
abstract: This review presents a comprehensive overview of the hierarchical nanostructured materials with either geometry or composition complexity in environmental applications. The hierarchical nanostructures offer advantages of high surface area, synergistic interactions, and multiple functionalities toward water remediation, biosensing, environmental gas sensing and monitoring as well as catalytic gas treatment. Recent advances in synthetic strategies for various hierarchical morphologies such as hollow spheres and urchin-shaped architectures have been reviewed. In addition to the chemical synthesis, the physical mechanisms associated with the materials design and device fabrication have been discussed for each specific application. The development and application of hierarchical complex perovskite oxide nanostructures have also been introduced in photocatalytic water remediation, gas sensing, and catalytic converter. Hierarchical nanostructures will open up many possibilities for materials design and device fabrication in environmental chemistry and technology.
authors.affiliation: Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Institute of Materials Science, University of Connecticut Storrs, CT, USA.
authors.forename: Zheng
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Ren
authors.affiliation: Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Institute of Materials Science, University of Connecticut Storrs, CT, USA.
authors.forename: Yanbing
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Guo
authors.affiliation: Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Institute of Materials Science, University of Connecticut Storrs, CT, USA ; Center for Clean Energy Engineering, University of Connecticut Storrs, CT, USA.
authors.forename: Cai-Hong
authors.initials: CH
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Institute of Materials Science, University of Connecticut Storrs, CT, USA ; Center for Clean Energy Engineering, University of Connecticut Storrs, CT, USA.
authors.forename: Pu-Xian
authors.initials: PX
authors.lastname: Gao
keywords: environmental catalyst; hierarchical assembly; nanomaterials; sensors (chemical and bio); sustainability