One-pot fabrication of yolk–shell nanospheres with ultra-small Au nanoparticles for catalysis

Abstract

We report a “one-pot” method for the direct synthesis of an organosilica shell/silica core nanoreactor confined with ultra-small metal (Au, Pd, and Ru) nanoparticles. The nano-reactor confined with Au nanoparticles showed high activity towards styrene oxidation using O₂ as the oxidant under 1 atm pressure and could be stably recycled without deterioration of both conversion and selectivity. The strategy could be adapted onto other nanostructures with little modification to obtain yolk–shell nanoreactors for catalysis application.