Nanoengineering of yolk-shell structured silicas for click chemistry

Nanoengineering of porous materials is of great interest for nanochemistry and practical applications. Herein, we reported the formation and its click functionalization of yolk-shell nanoparticles (YSNs) with different porous structure silicas as core. The yolk-shell structured silicas are prepared through the core-vesicle complex formation, vesicle-templating sol-gel polymerization of tetraethoxysilane (TEOS), hydrothermal treatment and calcination. The shell thickness and the void of YSNs can be regulated by changing the amount of added TEOS and solid silica core concentration. The shell of the obtained YSNs can be functionalized with thermosensitive polymers by grafting reaction and subsequent click reaction. This synthetic approach can be easily extended to other organic groups functionalized YSNs for versatile applications.