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.