A very simple strategy for the synthesis of superparamagnetic and fluorescent Fe(3)O(4)/ZnS hollow nanospheres is presented. These hollow nanospheres are not only nontoxic with a highly porous shell and have diameters of <100 nm but also exhibit very good magnetic resonance and fluorescence.

WO3·H2O nanotubes are successfully synthesized with the aid of intercalated polyaniline (PANI) under relatively mild conditions. More interestingly, the WO3·H2O nanotubes have a rectangular cross‐section structure formed through a rolling mechanism. Scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, X‐ray diffraction, thermogravimetric analysis, Fourier‐transform infrared analysis, UV‐vis‐near‐IR spectroscopy, selected‐area electron diffraction, and vibrating‐sample magnetometry analysis are employed to characterize the morphology, structure, and properties of the nanotubes.

No abstract

Monodisperse and size-tunable hollow silver spheres have been successfully synthesized with phase-transformable emulsions of natural beeswax as templates. Because beeswax is a hard and tough aggregate consisting of multiple small molecules and has a relatively low phase-transformable temperature, this method has the advantages of both hard-template and soft-template methods.

Hollow Ag/SiO2 double-shelled spheres with silver nanoparticle coating onto the interior wall of hollow silica have been successfully prepared via a novel and facile approach. In this method, negatively charged polystyrene (PS) beads were first modified by Sn2+ ions via electrostatic interaction, and then by Ag+ ions, which were reduced by Sn2+ ions and sodium-potassium tartrate to obtain PS/Ag composite spheres. When these spheres were coated by silica nanoparticles as shells from the hydrolysis and condensation reaction of tetraethoxysilane (TEOS) in isopropanol/ammonia mixture at 15 degrees C, the PS beads were "dissolved" in the same medium subsequently even synchronously, directly forming hollow Ag/SiO2 double-shelled spheres. Neither additional dissolution nor calcination process was used to remove polymer templates. This structure of hollow spheres not only has high catalytic activity, but also will decrease the loss of Ag nanoparticles due to frictional and/or other mechanical forces and the possible aggregations, and have controllable and selective catalytic activity compared to these common nanocomposite spheres with noble metal nanoparticles coating on the surfaces of supporting beads.