Ternary Interactions Balance Enabled Sequential Assembly toward the Synthesis of Hierarchically Mesoporous Metal Hydroxide Nanoparticles

Abstract

Materials with spatially orthogonal hierarchically mesoporous structures exhibit intriguing physical and chemical properties due to the synergistic integration of bimodal pores. The introduction of porosity with an extra dimension via multiple soft templates is highly flexible, but it remains a challenge for metal hydroxide materials. Here, we report a ternary interaction balance-enabled sequential assembly (TESA) strategy to construct hierarchically mesoporous metal hydroxide (HM-M) nanoparticles with tunable morphologies. This facile fabrication involves a sequential assembly process, including heterogeneous nucleation and monomicelle assembly, during which ingenious regulations on surface tension at the ternary interface are required. The balance among metal precursors, small surfactants, and block copolymers can be extended to obtain HM-M nanoparticles with various morphologies and compositions that possess enormous potential in catalysis, sensing, and energy. This study not only provides a versatile synthesis platform for novel HM-M materials but also offers new insights and inspiration for investigating multicomponent interactions during the assembly process.