Functional supraparticles produced by the evaporation of binary colloidal suspensions on superhydrophobic surfaces

Abstract

Hierarchically structured supraparticles can be produced by drying droplets of colloidal suspensions. Using binary suspensions provides degrees of structural and functional control beyond those possible for single components, while remaining tractable for fundamental mechanistic studies. Here, we implement evaporative co-assembly of two distinct particle types – ‘large’ polystyrene microparticles and ‘small’ inorganic oxide nanoparticles (silica, titania, zirconia, or ceria) – dried on superhydrophobic surfaces to produce bowl-shaped supraparticles. We extend this method to raspberry colloid templating, in which the binary suspension consists of titania nanoparticles together with gold-decorated polystyrene colloids. Following removal of the polymer particles, we demonstrate catalytic oxidative coupling of methanol to methyl formate using the resulting mesoporous supraparticles, showcasing their practical application.