Controlling the Reaction of Nanoparticles for Hollow Metal Oxide Nanostructures

Hollow nanostructures of metal oxides have found broad applications in different fields. Here, we reported a facile and versatile synthetic protocol to prepare hollow metal oxide nanospheres by modulating the chemical properties in solid nanoparticles. Our synthesis design starts with the precipitation of urea-containing metal oxalate, which is soluble in water but exists as solid nanospheres in ethanol. A controlled particle hydrolysis is achieved through the heating-induced urea decomposition, which transforms the particle composition in an outside-to-inside style: The reaction starts from the surface and then proceeds inward to gradually form a water-insoluble shell of basic metal oxalate. Such a reaction-induced solubility difference inside nanospheres becomes highly efficient to create a hollow structure through a simple water wash process. A following high temperature treatment forms hollow nanospheres of different metal oxides with structural features suited to their applications. For example, a high performance anode for Li-ion intercalation pseudocapacitor was demonstrated with the hollow and mesoporous Nb₂O₅ nanospheres.