Versatile synthesis of metal-compound based mesoporous Janus nanoparticles

Abstract The construction of mesoporous Janus nanoparticles (mJNPs) with controllable components is of great significance for the development of sophisticated nanomaterials with synergistically enhanced functionalities and applications. However, the compositions of reported mJNPs are mainly the functionally inert SiO2 and polymers. The universal synthesis of metal-compound based mJNPs with abundant functionalities is urgently desired, but remains a substantial challenge. Herein, we present a hydrophilicity mediated interfacial selective assembly strategy for the versatile synthesis of metal-compound based mJNPs. Starting from the developed silica-based mJNPs with anisotropic dual-surface of hydrophilic SiO2 and hydrophobic organosilica, metal precursor can selectively deposit onto the hydrophilic SiO2 subunit to form the metal-compound based mJNPs. This method shows good universality and can be used for the synthesis of more than 20 kinds of metal-compound based mJNPs, including alkali-earth metal compounds, transition metal compounds, rare-earth metal compounds etc. Besides, the composition of the metal-compound subunit can be well tuned from single to multiple metal elements, even high-entropy complexes. We believe that the synthesis method and obtained new members of mJNPs provide a very broad platform for the construction and application of mJNPs with rational designed functions and structures.