Hollow, Branched and Multifunctional Nanoparticles: Synthesis, Properties and Applications

Abstract

Nanoscale materials with various structures have attracted extensive research interest during the past decade. Among them, hollow, branched and multifunctional nanoparticles comprised of two different nanoparticle components are emerging as new classes of interesting nanomaterials owing to the unique optical, catalytic, electrical, magnetic and mechanical properties associated with their unusual morphologies as well as their potential wide range of applications in various fields such as photothermal therapy, diagnosis, drug delivery, catalysis, optoelectronic, electronics and biodiagnostics. In particular, branched nanoparticles promise to serve as building blocks for more complex materials and advanced devices through self-assembly and self-alignment and heterodimeric nanoparticles show promise for the development of tunable magnetic materials and multimodal biodiagnostic imaging tools.

One-pot synthesis and characterization of bifunctional Au–Fe3O4 hybrid core–shell nanoparticles

“…Nanostructures organized in unordinary spatial arrangements with multiple components endow themselves structures, material properties and functions that differ from their individual parent bulks, owing to their distinct geometrical profiling, ensuing interactions in special proximity and strong quantum confinement [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10]. Smart nanoparticles comprising cores and shells in particular offer an elegant category of such special nanostructures for fundamental studies and technological applications in many fields, for instance, in nanoelectronics, optical nanosensors, electrochemistry, and biosensors.…”