A review of synthetic approaches to hollow nanostructures

Abstract

During the past decades, hollow nanostructures have been developed as a vital class of functional materials in various areas owing to their advantageous characteristics over solid materials. To date, many efficient strategies have been explored to synthesize hollow nanostructures. These methods could be broadly divided into hard template, soft template, self-template, and template free methods. In this review, a tutorial summary of the recent progress in the synthesis of hollow nanostructures is provided. Considering the authors’ backgrounds, the applications of some typical examples mentioned here in electrochemical energy conversion/storage and catalysis are also simultaneously discussed. In the end, some current challenges and future development trends of this hot area are also outlined.