General Synthetic Strategy for Hollow Hybrid Microspheres through a Progressive Inward Crystallization Process.
Hollow hybrid microspheres have found great potential in different areas, such as drug delivery, nanoreactors, photonics, and lithium-ion batteries. Here, we report a simple and scalable approach to construct high-quality hollow hybrid microspheres through a previously unexplored growth mechanism. Starting from uniform solid microspheres with low crystallinity, we identified that a hollowing process can happen through the progressive inward crystallization process initiated on the particle surface: the gradual encroachment of the crystallization frontline toward the core leads to the depletion of the center and forms the central cavity. We showed that such a synthetic platform was versatile and can be applicable for a large variety of materials. By using the production of Li4Ti5O12-carbon hollow hybrid microspheres as an example, we demonstrated that high-performance anode materials could be achieved through synthesis and structure control. We expect that our findings offer new perspectives in different areas ranging from materials chemistry, energy storage devices, catalysis, to drug delivery.
Key Laboratory of Molecular Nanostructure and Nanotechnology and Beijing National Laboratory for Molecular Sciences, Institute of Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences , Beijing 100190, People's Republic of China.|University of Chinese Academy of Sciences , Beijing 100049, People's Republic of China.
Li-Ping
LP
Yang
Key Laboratory of Molecular Nanostructure and Nanotechnology and Beijing National Laboratory for Molecular Sciences, Institute of Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences , Beijing 100190, People's Republic of China.|State Key Laboratory of Fine Chemicals, Dalian University of Technology , Dalian 116024, People's Republic of China.
Xi-Jie
XJ
Lin
Key Laboratory of Molecular Nanostructure and Nanotechnology and Beijing National Laboratory for Molecular Sciences, Institute of Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences , Beijing 100190, People's Republic of China.|University of Chinese Academy of Sciences , Beijing 100049, People's Republic of China.
Xing
X
Zhang
Key Laboratory of Molecular Nanostructure and Nanotechnology and Beijing National Laboratory for Molecular Sciences, Institute of Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences , Beijing 100190, People's Republic of China.|University of Chinese Academy of Sciences , Beijing 100049, People's Republic of China.
Wei
W
Zhang
Key Laboratory of Molecular Nanostructure and Nanotechnology and Beijing National Laboratory for Molecular Sciences, Institute of Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences , Beijing 100190, People's Republic of China.|University of Chinese Academy of Sciences , Beijing 100049, People's Republic of China.
An-Min
AM
Cao
Key Laboratory of Molecular Nanostructure and Nanotechnology and Beijing National Laboratory for Molecular Sciences, Institute of Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences , Beijing 100190, People's Republic of China.|University of Chinese Academy of Sciences , Beijing 100049, People's Republic of China.
Li-Jun
LJ
Wan