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Hollow micro-/nano-spheres with large-through-holes in shells (denoted as HMLS) have demonstrated great potential in biomedical applications owing to the combination of hollow structure and their porous shells. In this review, we provide a comprehensive overview of synthesis methods of HMLS obtained from the template-directed approach, shell-breaking method, Ostwald ripening and galvanic replacement primarily based on the formation mechanism of the large-through-holes in the shell. We further discuss the biomedical applications of HMLS including guest adsorption and encapsulation of proteins, drug/gene delivery, biomedical imaging, and theranostics. We conclude this review with some perspectives on the future research and development of the HMLS with desired morphologies and properties.

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Transparent superamphiphobic surfaces that repel various liquids have many important applications, but there are critical challenges in their fabrication, such as expensive or complicated fabrication methods, contradictions between the rough surface for superamphiphobicity and smooth surface for transparency, large-area fabrication, etc. Herein, we report a simple and effective strategy for large-scale fabrication of robust, transparent, and superomniphobic polymer films by combined unidirectional rubbing and heating-assisted assembly technology. The obtained polymer films display two kinds of special structures of monolayer ordered re-entrant geometries with either hexagonally triangular protrusions or with hexagonally rectangular micropillars, depending upon the sphere diameters of silica templates, and demonstrate excellent repellence to water and low-surface-tension liquids, as well as high transparency.

Novel silica nanofibrous membranes with ultra-softness of 40 mN and enhanced tensile strength of 5.5 MPa were prepared for the first time via an electrospinning process, which exhibited an ultra-low thermal conductivity of 0.0058 W m−1 K−1.